PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to Pathological Demand Avoidance (PDA), a profile — predominantly associated with autism — characterized by extreme avoidance of everyday demands driven by anxiety rather than defiance. The autonomy ground state S°_autonomy is defined across five dimensions including demand tolerance without threat activation, flexible negotiation, and the capacity to comply without this triggering the threat system.
The central formal claim is that in PDA, demands constitute D(ξ_demand) processed as existential threats to autonomy rather than ordinary social coordination requests — the content of the demand is irrelevant; demand-structure itself triggers the threat response. Paradoxically, even desired activities become aversive when framed as demands. The PDA wrong attractor W_pda is the control-maintenance configuration — the only stable state in which the person can tolerate a situation — maintained by three interlocking mechanisms: avoidance strategies (distraction, excuses, negotiation, meltdown), control-seeking behaviors, and anxiety escalation when control fails.
The compliance paradox is formalized: standard behavioral approaches (rewards, consistent expectations, clear boundaries) worsen PDA by increasing the demand load L_D, thereby deepening the wrong attractor. Nine formal propositions are derived. Accumulated Φ across educational collapse, social isolation, family system distress, and adolescent crisis is modeled. PDA is formally distinguished from Oppositional Defiant Disorder (anxiety-motivated vs. defiance-motivated — opposite motivational structures) and from PTSD (demand aversion vs. trauma-cue avoidance).
Low-demand approaches and Collaborative and Proactive Solutions (Greene) are formalized as return path interventions.