PhronesisCompulsive forced optimism—the chronic, reflexive suppression of negative affect in favor of mandated positive reframing—constitutes a structurally stable wrong attractor in affective state space. Unlike calibrated tempered hopefulness, which holds reality and possibility simultaneously without foreclosing either, compulsive forced optimism operates through a positivity-override architecture that systematically blocks accurate perception of loss, danger, and limitation.
We develop a formal displacement framework using a ground-state reference S^0, a displacement functional D() measuring deviation from calibrated affect, and an integrated displacement = D()\,dt capturing cumulative affective distortion. Within this framework, compulsive forced optimism emerges as a self-reinforcing attractor W whose basin of attraction we call the authentic-affect foreclosure basin: a region of state space in which grief, accurate negative appraisal, and honest emotional registration become dynamically inaccessible.
We advance nine formal propositions characterizing this structure, analyze the mechanistic feedback loops constituting the positivity-override architecture, describe the basin geometry and its clinical correlates, and derive exit dynamics toward the ground state. The paper situates compulsive forced optimism within the broader literature on toxic positivity, spiritual bypassing, and wellbeing culture, arguing that return to calibrated tempered hopefulness requires not the elimination of positive affect but the restoration of honest affective bandwidth.