PhronesisWe develop a formal framework for understanding compulsive buying as a wrong attractor in the space of acquisition behaviors, using the displacement dynamics approach established in prior Phronesis Issues. The ground state S^0 is defined as calibrated intentional acquisition: purchasing decisions grounded in genuine need or carefully considered desire, accompanied by accurate anticipation of post-acquisition reality, and decoupled from emotional regulation.
The wrong attractor W is compulsive buying, in which the act of purchasing becomes the primary mechanism for temporary relief from negative emotional states. We formalize the purchase-as-regulation architecture through a displacement cost function D(), the accumulated displacement integral = D()\,dt, and nine formal propositions that characterize the acquisition-relief mechanism, basin depth as a function of relief reinforcement, ownership-disappointment dynamics, emotional regulation outsourcing, and the conditions for return to S^0.
We show that the basin of the wrong attractor deepens specifically because purchasing provides genuine (if temporary) relief, making the reinforcement real and thus the trap robust. The ownership-disappointment dynamic drives renewed acquisition, closing the cycle. Return conditions require emotion-first intervention, temporal buffers including the 48-hour rule, and discriminative training to distinguish genuine desire from regulatory impulse.