Scapegoating as Projected-Blame Wrong Attractor: A Displacement Framework Analysis

This paper applies the Displacement Framework to scapegoating, analysing it as a wrong attractor for the group or system performing the scapegoating. By externalising blame onto a designated victim, the group reduces its own displacement cost while concentrating accumulated displacement in the scapegoat. Using displacement cost D(ξ), accumulated displacement Φ, and basin geometry, we formalise Girard's mimetic theory within the displacement framework and examine family-systems scapegoating (the identified patient), minority scapegoating, and institutional blame displacement.

Nine formal propositions characterise the projection mechanism, group amplification, Girardian sacrificial resolution, the scapegoat's accumulated secondary displacement, and return paths through accountability and restorative justice. Published as part of The Phronesis Issues preprint series.