Chronic Displaced Anger as Target-Substitution Wrong Attractor: The Safe-Object Architecture, Direct-Confrontation Foreclosure Basin, and the Return to Calibrated Source-Directed Expression

Displaced anger — the redirection of anger from its actual source to a substitute target — is a near-universal transient phenomenon in emotional life. When it becomes chronic, however, displacement crystallizes into a distinct wrong attractor with its own basin geometry, maintenance mechanisms, and victims. We apply the Displacement Framework to chronic displaced anger, formalizing it as target-substitution wrong attractor W_DA: a stable configuration in which the anger-aroused organism consistently routes its discharge toward substitute (“safe”) objects rather than toward the actual source of displacement.

The ground state S^0 — calibrated, source-directed expression proportionate to the actual grievance — is foreclosed by power differentials, dependency, fear of retaliation, or habituated avoidance of direct confrontation. We develop the safe-object architecture: a five-stage cycle in which trigger, blockade, substitute identification, partial discharge, and relief-without-resolution perpetuate the pattern while accumulating original grievance = D()\,dt.

We formalize the direct-confrontation foreclosure basin: the region of state space in which the escape energy required to confront the actual source exceeds the organism's available resources, including a power-differential depth component _power that captures how authority asymmetry magnifies the attractor. Nine propositions govern the dynamics: attractor capture, escalation of displacement frequency, foreclosure of direct confrontation, the relief cycle, identity entrenchment, harm to innocent targets, non-resolution of the original grievance, basin deepening over time, and the return condition.

We discuss the relation to Freudian displacement, Girardian scapegoating, the hydraulic model of emotion (and its critique), Kemper's account of power and anger expression, the kick-the-dog literature, and contemporary workplace aggression research. The return to calibrated source-directed expression requires identifying the actual source, building confrontation capacity, processing power dynamics, and protecting innocent targets from the costs of a pattern they did not create.