PhronesisChronic indecisiveness is typically framed as a cognitive deficit or personality trait, yet this framing obscures its dynamical character: the persistent failure to resolve choices is not the absence of a decision process but the presence of a stable, self-sustaining wrong attractor. We introduce a formal framework in which S^0 denotes the ground state of calibrated autonomous deliberation — the baseline capacity to weigh options, tolerate uncertainty, and commit to action within a time-appropriate window.
Displacement from S^0 is quantified by a cost function D() measuring deviation in deliberative quality, temporal efficiency, and agentic ownership. The wrong attractor W is defined as a basin in deliberative state space characterised by approach-avoidance cycling, decision-outsourcing, and self-reinforcing paralysis. We prove nine formal propositions characterising the geometry of W, the dynamics of trajectory capture, the structure of the choice-paralysis basin, and the conditions required for return to S^0.
The agency-abdication architecture is analysed mechanistically, and clinical and corrective implications are derived. The framework unifies findings from cognitive psychology, affective neuroscience, and dynamical systems theory, offering both a precise diagnostic lens and a principled recovery trajectory for chronic indecisiveness.