DEFENSIVE DISPLACEMENT The psychiatric term displacement describes an unconscious psychological compromise in which one expresses negative emotions about another person or thing, while the actual source of rage or disappointment remains obscure. For example, a man who is actually angry with his domineering wife focuses his unhappiness on his boss's shortcomings. Two forms of protection result: the accuser finds some relief by venting his feelings without consciously recognizing the real source of his frustration -- which might cause even more anxiety -- and the genuine object of his fury remains unaware that these feelings are actually aimed at her. It strikes me that what Maureen Dowd calls "the Rummy Mutiny" is not exactly what it seems -- to her, to the rest of the press, to Bush, or to the generals themselves. The generals want Donald Rumsfeld, Bush's Secretary of Defense, to resign because of arrogance and incompetence. It is too dangerous emotionally -- not just...