PhronesisCompulsive solutionism is formalized as a wrong attractor W_CSL within the displacement framework: the reflexive conversion of every presented problem into an immediate fix attempt; the inability to tolerate unsolved problems or to simply be present with another person's struggle without immediately trying to eliminate it. The healthy ground state S0 is calibrated problem engagement: the capacity to hold problems, understand them, feel with the person experiencing them, and offer solutions when solutions are actually wanted.
Three mechanisms sustain the solutionism basin: problem-intolerance (the mere presence of an unsolved problem produces anxiety proportionate to its emotional salience; this anxiety demands discharge through solution-offering; the person offers solutions not primarily to help but to resolve their own discomfort); fixing-as-presence substitution (genuine accompaniment is replaced with fixing; the person is always doing something to the problem rather than simply being alongside the person having it; this prevents the other from feeling genuinely witnessed); and solution-as-competence performance (offering solutions is experienced as demonstrating value and care; not offering solutions when faced with a problem feels like inadequacy; this makes the compulsion identity-reinforcing).
The Solutionism Paradox states: compulsive solutionism reliably prevents the genuine help it is organized to provide; unsolicited solutions are experienced as dismissal of the problem's complexity, as implicit messages that the person should not still be struggling, or as subject-changes that end the conversation before the person felt heard. Nine formal propositions characterize the attractor, with developmental roots in environments where competence and utility were the primary currencies of worth.
Return paths include presence-before-solution practice, solution-request checking, and IFS work on the solver and anxiety exile.