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Displacement

Psychology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Redirecting emotions from a threatening target to a safer substitute.

Explore this topic in depth (1)

How to Scan a Poem — Scansion is the practice of listening closely to a poem’s rhythm and marking its pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables. It is not a way of forcing every line into a formula, but a method for hearing how regularity, variation and natural speech work together.

Detailed Definition
Displacement allows indirect expression of anger or desire. Poetry uses it metaphorically—venting grief onto nature, or love onto inanimate objects—enabling emotional release while maintaining psychological safety and poetic subtlety.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy,” displacement redirects anger from father to husband (“I made a model of you”); In Robert Browning’s “Porphyria’s Lover,” displacement channels obsession into murder; In W.H. Auden’s “The Unknown Citizen,” societal pressures displace personal grief onto bureaucratic metrics; In Emily Dickinson’s “My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun,” displacement transforms identity into weaponized metaphor; In Langston Hughes’ “Harlem,” displacement of racial frustration manifests as explosive imagery; In Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck,” displacement allows exploration of trauma through allegory.
Additional Notes
Displacement—redirecting emotion from a threatening to a safer target—is a key defense mechanism (Freud); in poetry, it appears as metaphor (anger at father redirected to husband in Plath’s “Daddy”) or symbolic action; useful for students to trace the emotional trajectory: What is the original source, and where is it displaced?; note its creative potential—displacement fuels much lyric metaphor.
Also Known As
Transference Redirection Substitution Exile Homesickness Projection
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