Kick the cat (or kick the dog
) is a
metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...
used to describe how a relatively high-ranking person in an organization or family
displaces their frustrations by abusing a lower-ranking person, who may in turn take it out on their own subordinate.
Origin of the idiom
The term has been used in the United States at least since the 19th century.
In current usage, the name envisions a scenario where an angry or frustrated employee comes home from work looking for some way to take out his anger, but the only thing present is the cat. He physically abuses it as a means of relieving his frustration, despite the cat playing no part in causing it.
Workplace or family dynamics
Kicking the cat is commonly used to describe the behaviour of staff abusing coworkers or subordinates as a mechanism to relieve
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
.
This behaviour can result in a
chain reaction
A chain reaction is a sequence of reactions where a reactive product or by-product causes additional reactions to take place. In a chain reaction, positive feedback leads to a self-amplifying chain of events.
Chain reactions are one way that sys ...
, where a higher-ranking member of the company abuses their subordinate, who takes it out on their own subordinate, and so on down the line. This
domino effect
A domino effect or chain reaction is the cumulative effect generated when a particular event triggers a chain of similar events. This term is best known as a mechanical effect and is used as an analogy to a falling row of dominoes. It typically ...
can also be seen in family dynamics, where the father yells at the mother who yells at the older child who yells at the younger child who yells at the pet.
Blaming others can lead to kicking the dog where individuals in a
hierarchy blame their immediate subordinate, and this propagates down a hierarchy until the lowest rung (the "dog"). A 2009 experimental study has shown that blaming can be contagious even for uninvolved onlookers.
Psychological theories
According to ''Psychology Today'', "Anger and frustration in one part of life can lead us to lash out at innocent people (or pets) in another."
[ The technical term for this kind of behaviour is "]displaced aggression
Displaced aggression, also referred to as redirected aggression, occurs when an animal or human is fearful or agitated by external stimuli, a provocation, or perception, but is unable or unwilling to direct their aggression toward the stimulus ...
".[
Kicking the cat is looked upon unfavourably and viewed as a sign of poor ]anger management
Anger management is a psycho-therapeutic program for anger prevention and control. It has been described as deploying anger successfully.Schwarts, Gil. July 2006. Anger Management', July 2006 The Office Politic. Men's Health magazine. Emmaus, PA: ...
. According to author Steve Sonderman, "Men funnel 90 percent of their emotions through anger" and may "kick the cat" as a substitute for grief, anxiety
Anxiety is an emotion which is characterized by an unpleasant state of inner turmoil and includes feelings of dread over anticipated events. Anxiety is different than fear in that the former is defined as the anticipation of a future threat wh ...
or other emotions. Psychology author Raj Persaud suggests that people "kick the cat" as a means of catharsis
Catharsis (from Greek , , meaning "purification" or "cleansing" or "clarification") is the purification and purgation of emotions through dramatic art, or it may be any extreme emotional state that results in renewal and restoration. In its lite ...
because they fear expressing their full emotions to the peers and colleagues.
See also
References
{{Bullying
Abuse
English-language idioms
Management
Metaphors referring to cats
Occupational stress
Workplace bullying