PhronesisChronic boundary dissolution is a relational and intrapsychic configuration in which the differentiated ground state of self—here formalized as calibrated relational definition (S^0)—is progressively replaced by a pattern of enmeshment in which the self's organizing edges become structurally ambiguous or functionally absent. We model this process as displacement from S^0 along a dissolution trajectory (t), and define the cumulative displacement = D()\,dt as an index of enmeshment load.
The wrong attractor W is characterized as a fixed-point region in psychological phase space toward which dissolution dynamics converge under conditions of chronic relational stress, anxious attachment, or identity-contingent caretaking. We demonstrate, through nine formal propositions, that the W basin is self-sealing: entry suppresses differentiation signaling, reinforcing further dissolution.
Recovery—exit toward S^0—requires non-withdrawal differentiation, a process we describe as calibrated re-definition: the recovery of self-edges without relational rupture. We situate the framework within attachment theory, family systems theory, codependency research, and trauma bonding literature. The paper's central claim is that enmeshment is not a failure of love but a failure of self-geometry: dissolution is not intimacy but its structural mimic, and the return to S^0 is the recovery of the capacity to be genuinely present to another without ceasing to be a self.