PhronesisThe pattern of repeatedly choosing and remaining attached to emotionally unavailable partners is here formally reconceptualized as a wrong attractor W_UA in the landscape of consistent available love. The healthy ground state S^0 is defined as consistent love: a partner who is emotionally present, responsive, and reliably available. W_UA is rigorously distinguished from appropriate relational discernment, realistic standards, and genuine incompatibility.
Three interlocking mechanisms maintain the basin: familiarity of deprivation (early attachment experiences establish a template in which emotional unavailability feels correct — available, consistent love feels strange or threatening, D(ξ) is experienced as lower in unavailability than in availability), pursuit-distance amplification (unavailability acutely activates the attachment system, generating hyperactivation — more longing, more felt connection than a consistently available partner would; intermittent reinforcement deepens the basin), and the availability-aversion cycle (when a consistent, available partner appears, they are experienced as 'too easy,' 'boring,' or 'not right' — available love produces discomfort rather than relief, inverting the attractor landscape).
The Deprivation Paradox is central: the pattern reliably produces the emotional connection it is organized to secure — the pursuit of unavailable partners generates maximal longing but minimal contact, while the avoidance of available partners forecloses the consistent love that represents actual return. Nine formal propositions characterize the ground state of consistent love, the wrong attractor basin, the three maintenance mechanisms, the deprivation paradox, developmental roots in early attachment, and return paths through earned security, EFT, and pattern recognition.