All posts by Olya K-Mehri

Olya is a practitioner and writer working at the intersection of policy, ethics, and social equity. She has an academic background in interfaith dialogue and serves as an Assistant Director at a national public policy consultancy in the UK. Olya is also Centre Lead at the Centre for Climate, Migration and Place at the Institute of Domestic Violence, Religion and Migration (IDVRM). In addition, she is a mentor with the Whitehall & Industry Group, supporting professionals across both the public and private sector.
Authors I-Q, Inclusion, Of Women, Social Issues

The Psychology of Displacement and Projection – by Olya K-Mehri

In professional and organisational settings, the word “aggressive” is often applied in response to tone rather than conduct. What is described as aggression in these moments seldom concerns hostility; instead, it reflects an emotional defence mechanism in which discomfort is projected onto the speaker. Through processes of displacement and projection, the listener redirects their unease rather than examining its source. subsequent labelling of their expression as “aggressive” functions less as an objective observation and more as a psychological strategy to preserve equilibrium and reaffirm dominant notions of professionalism (Hochschild, 1983; Ahmed, 2004).

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