Pathological Nostalgia as Past-Idealization Wrong Attractor: A Displacement Framework Analysis

This paper applies the Displacement Framework to pathological nostalgia, examining it as a wrong-attractor state in which an idealized past becomes the reference point against which the present is always found deficient. Using displacement cost D(ξ), accumulated displacement Φ, and basin geometry, we show how treating S^0 as located in an inaccessible past makes present engagement carry displacement cost relative to the imagined prior state.

Memory distortion deepens the basin by widening the gap between idealized past and experienced present. Nine formal propositions characterise the past-as-ground-state error, memory distortion, comparison asymmetry, collective nostalgic wrong attractors in nationalist politics, the bereavement connection, and return paths. Published as part of The Phronesis Issues preprint series.