PhronesisCompulsive literal thinking (CLT) is analyzed as a stable wrong attractor in cognitive state space, characterized by systematic avoidance of metaphorical processing and entrapment within a basin of interpretive rigidity. We introduce the displacement framework, in which the ground state S^0 denotes calibrated symbolic fluency—the capacity to traverse smoothly between concrete and figurative registers—and define a scalar displacement field D() measuring deviation from this ground state.
Accumulated displacement = D()\,dt quantifies the depth of literal entrenchment over time. We formalize the wrong attractor W as a fixed-point regime in which concretization is self-reinforcing: each successful concrete interpretation reduces the availability of metaphorical alternatives, steepening the basin walls. Nine formal propositions characterize the geometry of this basin, the conditions for return, and the bifurcation structure separating healthy symbolic fluency from rigid literalism.
We connect the architecture to clinical phenomena including autism spectrum rigidity, post-traumatic concretization, alexithymia, and bureaucratic thinking, arguing that all share the same wrong-attractor topology. Therapeutic and pedagogical implications are outlined. The paper concludes that return to S^0 requires not incremental correction but a phase transition: a discontinuous jump across the basin boundary through what we term a symbolic unfreezing event.