PhronesisThis paper formalizes compulsive transactional thinking (CTT) as a wrong attractor in the displacement-dynamics framework of relational cognition. We define the ground state S^0 as calibrated relational generosity: the capacity to give and receive within relationships without maintaining a running ledger, trusting in the general reciprocity of good relationships over time without demanding moment-to-moment accounting.
The wrong attractor W is the habitual application of market-exchange logic to all relationships—maintaining an internal ledger of who owes what to whom, treating every act of giving as an implicit loan requiring repayment, and withdrawing from relationships whose “account” goes negative. We introduce the displacement cost function D() measuring distance from calibrated relational generosity, and the accumulated displacement = D()\,dt representing the chronic commodification of relationship.
We characterize the basin depth of CTT as a function of exploitation-fear, show how the ledger mechanism becomes self-reinforcing, and trace the destruction of unconditional trust as the primary harm. Nine formal propositions (P1–P9) establish the mathematical architecture of the attractor, the conditions for basin escape, and the return path through gift-economy reframing, long-arc reciprocity recognition, and practiced untracked generosity.
The paper closes with clinical and practical implications for the diagnosis and treatment of relational commodification as a cognitive wrong attractor.