Dichotomous Thinking as Complexity-Avoidance Wrong Attractor: A Displacement Framework Analysis

This paper applies the Displacement Framework to dichotomous thinking, analysing it as a wrong-attractor state in which ambiguity, nuance, and contradiction carry elevated displacement cost while binary categorisation provides temporary relief. Using displacement cost D(ξ), accumulated displacement Φ, and basin geometry, we show how the wrong attractor is maintained by the short-term anxiety-relief that simple categorisations provide.

Nine formal propositions characterise the complexity-reduction mechanism, splitting as the relational form of dichotomous thinking, idealisation-devaluation cycles, political polarisation as the aggregate form, BPD and narcissism comorbidity, and return paths through dialectical training and tolerance of ambiguity. Published as part of The Phronesis Issues preprint series.