'Libido denied outlet at one point will seek it at another'. This mechanism—displacement—operates in the service of the pleasure-pain principle. Transference is defined as a displacement of libidinal cathexis. Zonal displacement is most common in hysteria, and displacement from the vital to the insignificant is characteristic of obsessional neuroses. Sublimation is understood in terms of displacement in the direction of the socially desirable.

Following this theoretical analysis, the motive for displacement, guilt, is discussed and its function is compared to that of pain. Though of all animals, man seems most capable of enduring pain, he is poorly equipped to live with guilt. Concluding with neurophysiological analogies, Hart attributes to the ego the capacity of displacing guilt into peripheral, somatic perception and he assumes that this process is a function of the cerebral cortex or of the corticothalamic organization.