PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to misophonia, formalizing it as an auditory-trigger wrong attractor in which specific sounds generate catastrophic D(ξ) through an aberrant salience-assignment mechanism. The acoustic ground state S°_acoustic is defined as the capacity to inhabit environments with ordinary ambient sound without involuntary threat activation. The wrong attractor W_miso has three components: trigger pattern recognition (not all sounds but specific patterns, often oral/nasal/repetitive rhythmic), interpersonal specificity (triggers frequently source-specific — the same sound from different people generates different responses), and the anger-disgust cascade (rage directed at the sound source, unusual among sensory sensitivity conditions which typically produce anxiety/withdrawal).
The neurobiological substrate involves anomalous myelination in the anterior insular cortex connecting auditory and salience networks (Kumar et al., 2017), and the mirror neuron hypothesis: trigger sounds activate motor circuit simulations generating embodied disgust. A secondary anticipatory avoidance wrong attractor progressively narrows the accessible acoustic landscape — avoiding meals, open-plan offices, restaurants, relationships with trigger-producing people.
The anger-disgust paradox generates a shame-suppression-secondary-Φ loop: the disproportionate rage is ego-alien, shame drives suppression, suppression increases internal D(ξ), eventual expression damages relationships, and guilt deepens the wrong attractor. Nine formal propositions are derived covering trigger specificity, the interpersonal dimension, progressive avoidance deepening, and the anger-disgust-shame triple accumulation.
Return paths include CBT, mindfulness as response flexibility (not desensitization), and acceptance work on the shame dimension.