DISPLACEMENT, CONDENSATION , VACUUM OR POETIC ACTIVITY

Celia asked me what the term was for finding all kinds of other things to do rather then getting on with what one thought one was supposed to do. I replied displacement activity. Then I thought, just what is displacement activity, other than what I seem to be indulging in every day.

According to Wikipedia:

Displacement activities occur when an animal experiences high motivation for two or more conflicting behaviours: the resulting displacement activity is usually unrelated to the competing motivations. Birds, for example, may peck at grass when uncertain whether to attack or flee from an opponent; similarly, a human may scratch his or her head when they do not know which of two options to choose. Displacement activities may also occur when animals are prevented from performing a single behaviour for which they are highly motivated. Displacement activities often involve actions which bring comfort to the animal such as scratching, preening, drinking or feeding.

So what I am really indulging in is comfort behaviour. In animals these are activities that help maintain the pelage, feathers, integument or musculoskeletal system and increase the physical comfort of the animal. They are a subset of maintenance behaviours which also include activities such as feeding, drinking and elimination. Comfort behaviours are performed from an early age and change little during development. Should one think of oneself as a fat bird or a beached whale.

Freud

Some of this behaviour can also fall under the classification of vacuum activities. Vacuum behaviours are innate, fixed action patterns of animal behaviour that are performed in the absence of the external stimuli (releaser) that normally elicit them. This type of abnormal behaviour shows that a key stimulus is not always needed to produce an activity. Vacuum activities can be difficult to identify because it is necessary to determine whether any stimulus triggered the behaviour.

In Freudian psychology, displacement (German Verschiebung, 'shift' or 'move') is an unconscious defence mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for goals felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.

As a term originating with Sigmund Freud, displacement operates in the mind unconsciously, its transference of emotions, ideas, or wishes being most often used to allay anxiety in the face of aggressive or sexual impulses.

Lacan

Displacement also brings us back to the matter of the PhD – sign and language, writing social identity. In 1957 Jacques Lacan, inspired by an article by linguist Roman Jakobson on metaphor and metonymy, argued that the unconscious has the structure of a language, linking displacement to the poetic function of metonymy and condensation to that of metaphor. Lacan stated “in the case of Verschiebung, 'displacement', the German term is closer to the idea of that veering off of signification that we see in metonymy, and which from its first appearance in Freud is represented as the most appropriate means used by the unconscious to foil censorship”.

In psychology, a condensation (from the German Verdichtung) is when a single idea (an image, memory, or thought) appropriates the whole charge of libido of at least two other ideas. The charges are displaced from the originating ideas to the receiving one, where they merge and "condense" together.

According to Freud’s work (1900), condensation and displacement (from German Verdichtung and Verschiebung) are two closely linked concepts. In the unconscious, through the dynamic movement of cathexis (charge of libido, mental or emotional energy), it is possible that an idea (image, memory, or thought) passes on its whole charge to another idea; Freud called this process "displacement." It is also possible that a single idea takes the whole charge of more than one other ideas; Freud called this process "condensation.” In other words, a condensation is when more than one displacement occurs towards the same idea.

For Jakobson, there are six functions of language:

Jakobson

1-The Referential Function -

corresponds to the factor of Message and describes a situation, object or mental state. The descriptive statements of the referential function can consist of both definite descriptions and deictic words, e.g. "The autumn leaves have all fallen now."

2-The Expressive (alternatively called "emotive" or "affective") Function -

relates to the Addresser (sender) and is best exemplified by interjections and other sound changes that do not alter the denotative meaning of an utterance but do add information about the Addresser's (speaker's) internal state, e.g. "Wow, what a view!"

3-The Conative Function -

engages the Addressee (receiver) directly and is best illustrated by vocatives and imperatives, e.g. "Tom! Come inside and eat!"

4-The Poetic Function -

focuses on "the message for its own sake" (the code itself, and how it is used) and is the operative function in poetry as well as slogans.

5-The Phatic Function -

is language for the sake of interaction and is therefore associated with the Contact factor. The Phatic Function can be observed in greetings and casual discussions of the weather, particularly with strangers. It also provides the keys to open, maintain, verify or close the communication channel: "Hello?", "Ok?", "Hummm", "Bye"...

6-The Metalingual (alternatively called "metalinguistic" or "reflexive") Function -

is the use of language (what Jakobson calls "Code") to discuss or describe itself. (All this article is an example of metalinguistic Function).

A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. Metaphor is a type of analogy and is closely related to other rhetorical figure of speech that achieve their effects via association, comparison or resemblance including allegory, hyperbole and simile. In simpler terms, a metaphor compares two objects or things without using the words "like" or "as".

Metonymy is a figure of speech in which a thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of something associated with that thing or concept. For instance, "Hollywood" is used as a metonym for the U.S. film industry. A building which houses the seat of government or the national capital is often used to represent the government of a country, such as "Westminster" or "Washington”.

Metonymy may be contrasted with metaphor. Both figures involve the substitution of one term for another. In metaphor, this substitution is based on some specific similarity, whereas in metonymy the substitution is based on some understood association (contiguity).

Here is a man who knows a lot about displacement: