Emotional Cutoff as Fusion-Avoidance Wrong Attractor: A Displacement Framework Analysis

This paper applies the Displacement Framework to emotional cutoff, examining it as a wrong-attractor state that emerges from failed differentiation in fused relational systems. Using displacement cost D(ξ), accumulated displacement Φ, and basin geometry, we demonstrate how emotional cutoff solves the fusion problem by maximising physical or psychological distance, thereby reducing short-term displacement cost while deepening the wrong-attractor basin.

Nine formal propositions characterise the cutoff dynamic, the role of unresolved anxiety in sustaining it, and return paths toward differentiated presence. Published as part of The Phronesis Issues preprint series.