In psychology， displacement is an unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mindredirects affects from an object felt to be dangerous or unacceptable to an object felt to be safe oracceptable. For instance， some people punch cushions when they are angry at friends； a collegestudent may snap at his or her roommate when upset about an exam grade.
Displacement itself can be maintained in either of two ways， negative displacement orpositive displacement.
In negative displacement， you try to redirect your intense emotion toward someone else.The negative displacement can act in a chain-reaction， with people unwittingly becoming bothvictims and perpetrators of displacement. For example， a man is angry with his boss， but hecannot express this so he hits his wife. The wife then hits one of their children. With nobody leftto displace anger onto， the child goes and kicks the dog.
In positive displacement， when you feel very upset or disappointed， you would not take outyour resentments on someone else or blame others， instead， you work out， say you do 100 push-ups in the living room； play basketball or soccer the whole afternoon in order to let go of youranger. We can say that positive displacement is derived mainly through physical activities.
Displacement operates in the mind unconsciously and involves emotions， ideas， or wishesbeing transferred from their original object to a more acceptable substitute. It is most often usedto allay anxiety. By doing so， we at least temporarily feel better.
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