PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to Adjustment Disorder (AjD), formalizing it as stressor-locked displacement — the failure of normal adjustment processing in which D(ξ_stressor) either exceeds proportionate response to the stressor magnitude or persists beyond 6 months after stressor resolution. AjD occupies the clinically significant liminal zone between normal stress response (D(ξ) without disorder) and full syndromal conditions (PTSD, major depression, GAD), representing the most common psychiatric diagnosis in clinical settings globally (5-21% prevalence).
The adaptive stress-response ground state S⁰_adaptive is defined as the functional capacity for normal adjustment: D(ξ) peaks at stressor onset and returns to baseline within expected timeframes through coping completion. AjD arises via two pathways: Pathway I (D(ξ_measured) >> D(ξ_expected)) and Pathway II (D(ξ) persists after stressor resolves). Nine formal propositions are derived covering: S⁰_adaptive definition (P1), the normal vs. disordered adjustment formal boundary (P2), stressor-locked wrong attractor formation through rumination, prior Φ, insufficient social support, and identity centrality (P3), AjD's liminal three-zone diagnostic position (P4), multi-context Φ profiles across relationship, occupational, health, bereavement, and developmental stressor types (P5), the gateway hypothesis linking untreated AjD to major depression (P6), brief psychotherapy as the evidence-based return path (P7), the benzodiazepine contraindication as basin-deepening risk (P8), and AjD's elevated suicide risk in adolescents (P9).
The paper formally integrates DSM-5 and ICD-11 frameworks.