Catastrophising as Worst-Case Attractor: Threat Inflation, Anticipatory Suffering, and Return to Calibrated Appraisal

This paper applies the Displacement Framework to catastrophising, analysing it as a wrong-attractor state in which the worst-case scenario becomes the default appraisal. Using displacement cost D(ξ), accumulated displacement Φ, and basin geometry, we show how anticipatory suffering generates pure accumulated displacement when the catastrophe never arrives, and how the basin deepens through emotional priming and narrative consolidation.

Pain catastrophising is treated as a special case where the mechanism amplifies actual nociceptive signals. Nine formal propositions characterise the threat-inflation mechanism, anticipatory suffering dynamics, basin deepening, the pain catastrophising extension, and return paths through cognitive restructuring, ACT defusion, and acceptance. Published as part of The Phronesis Issues preprint series.