PhronesisGuilt is an adaptive moral emotion that signals transgression and motivates repair. Chronic guilt is a wrong attractor W_guilt in which guilt persists beyond its signal function — because repair is impossible, because self-punishment substitutes for genuine repair without achieving resolution, or because perfectionist standards generate guilt over actions that do not constitute genuine transgressions.
We apply the Displacement Framework to formalize chronic guilt. The healthy guilt ground state S0_guilt is defined as episodic repair-motivating guilt that resolves through amends, forgiveness, or acceptance of irreversibility. Nine formal propositions cover: S0_guilt as proportionate repair-motivating signal (P1), W_guilt three-pathway architecture — impossible repair, self-punishment substitution, and non-transgression guilt (P2), the self-punishment substitution loop — punishment that feels like paying but generates no resolution (P3), trauma-related guilt — guilt at non-transgressions as W_guilt without legitimate repair path (P4), scrupulosity as perfectionist religious W_guilt (P5), enmeshed-family guilt — structural guilt generation in systems that punish individuation (P6), the guilt-shame migration — chronic guilt deepening toward shame as self-concept implication expands (P7), cumulative Phi_guilt across psychological, relational, and behavioral domains (P8), and return paths including repair where possible, grief-based acceptance of irreversibility, self-compassion, schema therapy, and existential confrontation (P9).
Psychoanalytic substrate (superego, depressive position), trauma-related guilt, and the Tangney guilt-shame distinction are analyzed.