PhronesisCompulsive boundary-testing is modeled within the Displacement Framework as a wrong-attractor configuration in which the underlying need for containment and stable structure is persistently displaced onto limit-probing behavior. The subject never directly requests secure relational or institutional structure; instead, they elicit it through escalating provocation, rule violation, and systematic limit-pushing.
We formalize this pattern as the boundary-testing wrong attractor W_BT, characterized by a displacement field D() that routes containment-seeking energy away from direct structural request and into iterative limit-probe cycles. Ground state S^0—calibrated reciprocal respect, operating within shared relational agreements without constant limit verification—is foreclosed by a stable-structure threat gradient that renders direct requests for containment aversive or unavailable.
We introduce the Limit-Probe Architecture (LPA) as the operational mechanism of W_BT and the Stable-Structure Foreclosure Basin (SSFB) as the geometric account of why return to S^0 requires not merely behavioral change but basin-topology modification. Nine formal propositions govern attractor capture, escalation dynamics, relational damage accumulation, and return conditions. The paper situates the framework within attachment theory, trauma-informed developmental models, and adolescent oppositional behavior literature.
Therapeutic and relational implications are discussed, emphasizing that stable structure provided in response to provocation offers only brief relief until the foreclosure basin is addressed directly.