PhronesisCompulsive analysis is characterized here as a wrong attractor in the state space of cognition and action: a self-reinforcing loop of decomposition that presents itself as productive epistemic work while systematically foreclosing the very action it purports to prepare. We introduce a formal displacement framework centered on the ground state S^0, defined as calibrated integrated understanding — a mode of knowing that is neither paralyzed by uncertainty nor falsely resolved by premature closure.
Departure from S^0 is measured by a displacement field D(), with cumulative compulsive investment = D()\,d. We characterize the wrong attractor W as the basin in cognitive-state space toward which certainty-pursuit trajectories converge: once captured, the agent enters a decomposition architecture in which each sub-problem spawns further sub-problems, and the action threshold rises indefinitely.
We present nine formal propositions governing displacement, basin depth, sunk-cost deepening, and exit dynamics. The paper analyzes mechanistic links to analysis paralysis, executive dysfunction, rumination, and overthinking, and derives conditions under which return to S^0 becomes possible. The central clinical and practical finding is that exit from the wrong attractor is not achieved by completing the analysis but by recognizing the asymptote and choosing to act under residual uncertainty.