PhronesisHealthy doubt is adaptive: it signals genuine uncertainty and prompts re-evaluation. Chronic self-doubt is a wrong attractor W_doubt in which the person's self-evaluation system is organized around recursive undermining of their own perceptions, judgments, and decisions — not episodic uncertainty but a stable configuration where self-trust cannot be sustained. We apply the Displacement Framework to formalize chronic self-doubt.
The grounded self-trust ground state S0_trust is defined via Bandura's self-efficacy at calibration: confidence proportionate to actual competence, allowing effective action without excessive external validation. W_doubt is maintained through two interlocking mechanisms: the recursive undermining loop (doubt → re-evaluation → meta-doubt about the re-evaluation → paralysis, with Wells's negative metacognitive beliefs as second-order amplifier) and second-guessing architecture (initial judgment → reversal → alternative → reversal → paralysis, with counterfactual haunting as retroactive doubt generator).
Nine formal propositions cover: S0_trust as grounded self-trust (P1), W_doubt as epistemic-agency wrong attractor distinct from perfectionism and anxiety (P2), the recursive undermining loop (P3), second-guessing architecture and counterfactual haunting (P4), epistemic injustice as external displacement source — Fricker's testimonial injustice and Abramson's gaslighting (P5), childhood invalidating environments as W_doubt incubators (P6), reassurance-seeking as basin-deepening behavior (P7), cumulative Phi_doubt across epistemic, behavioral, relational, and identity domains (P8), and return paths including metacognitive therapy, ACT defusion, behavioral calibration experiments, and self-compassion (P9).