Compulsive Rumination as Self-Examination Wrong Attractor: The Thought-Loop Architecture, Pseudo-Processing Basin, and the Return to Calibrated Reflective Integration

Compulsive rumination is defined here as a systematic wrong attractor in the landscape of self-directed cognition: a state that mimics genuine self-examination while systematically foreclosing the integration it resembles. This paper develops a formal displacement-theoretic account of rumination as a cognitive attractor basin, distinct from calibrated reflective integration (the ground state S^0), yet close enough in phenomenal character to resist ordinary introspective identification.

We introduce the thought-loop architecture, characterized by trigger-to-cycle initiation, pseudo-processing recurrence, and emotional amplification feedback. We define the accumulated displacement functional = D()\,dt and show that chronic ruminative engagement deepens the basin through loop-reinforcement, making spontaneous return increasingly costly. The pseudo-processing dynamic is formalized: rumination shares surface features with reflection — the subject matter is personal, the tone is serious, mental effort is felt — but fails the core criterion that genuine reflection moves: it produces new understanding, closure, or acceptance before releasing the thought.

Nine formal propositions develop the theory, from the structural definition of the thought-loop through return conditions and the interventions that restore access to S^0. The paper concludes with an account of diagnostic indicators, behavioral interruption protocols, and the integration practices that constitute genuine resolution.