PhronesisPerformative helpfulness (W_PH) is formalized within the displacement framework as a wrong attractor: a stable, self-reinforcing behavioral configuration in which assistance is structured primarily around the helper's need to be seen helping, rather than around the recipient's genuine requirements. The formalization proceeds through three identifying mechanisms. The witnessing requirement installs an internal criterion that help counts only when acknowledged—unwitnessed assistance feels wasted or incomplete, generating pressure toward visibility-maximizing delivery channels regardless of their effectiveness.
The credit-maximization over outcome optimization dynamic produces systematic deviation from the path of most effective help toward the path of most legible help; since both paths often accomplish the stated goal, this deviation is invisible to the helper and felt as genuine assistance. The recognition-hunger displacement mechanism reveals the deeper structure: the actual need being met is not the recipient's need but the helper's need for acknowledgment of worth—helping becomes a reliable, socially legitimate mechanism for producing recognition without the vulnerability of asking directly for it.
The wrong attractor is sustained precisely because the helper is typically sincere: the performance is not conscious deception but structural distortion. Displacement cost D() accumulates in the helper through deferred self-need, hollow recognition cycles that cannot satisfy the underlying hunger, and progressively hollowed relationships in which recipients sense the asymmetry. Formal distinction is drawn from compulsive caretaking (organized around the helper's emotional regulation through others' dependency), pathological altruism (organized around self-sacrifice), and compulsive helpfulness (organized around people-pleasing and approval).
A dynamical model is developed, proofs provided for nine propositions, and return paths to the calibrated genuine assistance ground state S^0 are characterized.