PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to Posttraumatic Growth (PTG), formalizing it as return-path overshoot — traversal past S⁰_original to a new expanded ground state S⁰_new that exceeds the pre-trauma baseline on certain dimensions. This paper is unique in the Displacement Framework series in describing not a wrong attractor or failure to return, but the possibility of genuine positive landscape reconstruction through displacement processing.
PTG is formally distinguished from resilience (return to S⁰_original without overshoot), symptom resolution (cessation of D(ξ) without new basin formation), and positive affect (subjective well-being without structural change). Janoff-Bulman's shattered assumptions mechanism is formalized as basin shattering: trauma large enough to destroy the prior assumptive world configuration forces complete landscape reconstruction rather than return, potentially reaching new minima inaccessible from S⁰_original.
Nine formal propositions are derived covering: S⁰_new as exceeded ground state across five PTG domains (P1), the bounded displacement range enabling overshoot — too small produces resilience, too large produces wrong attractor formation (P2), Janoff-Bulman basin-shattering as the enabling mechanism (P3), the processing requirement — deliberate rumination as necessary for overshoot while intrusive rumination alone returns to S⁰_original (P4), PTG coexistence with ongoing distress — S⁰_new is not zero-displacement (P5), the Expert Companion as guided traversal facilitator (P6), social scaffolding as scaffold for reconstruction (P7), the authenticity criterion distinguishing genuine from illusory PTG (P8), and non-universality — PTG is possible but not universal or obligatory (P9).