PhronesisCompulsive redirecting—the habitual, largely unconscious seizure of conversational topic-control by one participant—constitutes a recognizable wrong attractor in dialogue dynamics. We formalize this behavior within the displacement framework, treating calibrated receptive exchange (S^0) as the natural ground state of productive conversation and compulsive redirecting as a high- attractor that systematically forecloses the spontaneous trajectories available to interlocutors.
We define a displacement cost function D() over the space of conversational moves, show that its integral = D()\,dt accumulates into a foreclosure basin of increasing depth, and characterize the basin geometry in terms of topic-control override frequency and intensity. We identify phase transitions separating mild steering from pathological foreclosure, derive conditions under which intervention reduces basin depth, and model recovery dynamics as a return path from the wrong attractor to S^0.
Systemic and ethical dimensions of chronic topic-control are analyzed, including the asymmetric cost distribution across participants and the relationship between compulsive redirecting and attachment dysregulation. Nine formal propositions organize the theoretical development. Implications for dialogue repair, therapeutic conversation, and conversational AI alignment are discussed.