PhronesisGrudge-holding — the chronic maintenance of interpersonal injury as active grievance, the sustained orientation toward a past harm as though it were present — is here formally reconceptualized as a wrong attractor W_GH in the landscape of released agency. The healthy ground state S^0 is defined as released agency: the capacity to process interpersonal injuries, grieve them proportionately, and release the active grievance orientation without requiring reconciliation, trust restoration, or condoning the harm.
W_GH is constituted by three interlocking mechanisms: the rumination-grievance loop (rehearsing the wrong intensifies the felt injury, deepening investment in maintaining the grudge), identity consolidation (the grudge becomes a source of moral status and relational identity), and the cost-accounting function (holding the grudge as an unpaid debt ledger requiring eventual settlement).
The asymmetric suffering paradox characterizes the attractor: the grudge-holder suffers the injury repeatedly through rumination while the offender is largely unaffected. Nine formal propositions characterize these mechanisms alongside physiological costs (elevated cortisol, cardiovascular stress), the distinction between forgiveness and condoning, gender and cultural variation, social reinforcement of grudge narratives, and return paths through Worthington's REACH model, Enright's forgiveness therapy, and self-compassion practices.