PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), formalizing it as a polyfragmented wrong attractor landscape in which severe early trauma prevents consolidation of a unified S⁰_self, creating instead multiple stable alter attractor states W_1...W_n each holding partial aspects of experience, emotion, and function. The unified identity ground state S⁰_self is defined as integrated autobiographical continuity, coherent emotional regulation, single embodied perspective, and developmental consolidation through attachment — the configuration that early trauma prevents from forming.
Each alter W_i is a stabilized basin configuration with distinct activation thresholds, emotional baseline, memory access, and physiological signatures; the polyfragmented DID landscape may contain dozens to hundreds of such basins. Nine formal propositions cover: S⁰_self definition and developmental formation (P1), alter states as parallel basin configurations (P2), amnesia barriers as inter-basin isolation preventing natural integration (P3), switching as basin transition with variable transition costs (P4), the ANP/EP distinction from Structural Dissociation Theory — ANP minimizes D(ξ_trauma) through phobic avoidance while EP holds accumulated Φ (P5), polyvagal alter differentiation mapping Porges' three circuits to alter classes (P6), cumulative Φ as total system load Σ_i Φ_i (P7), ISSTD phase-based treatment as staged return path from stabilization through trauma processing to integration (P8), and integration as progressive landscape simplification toward unified S⁰_self (P9).
The paper distinguishes DID from OSDD and BPD, addresses the recovered memory controversy, and formalizes IFS therapy as an alter communication protocol.