PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to selective mutism (SM), formalizing it as contextual displacement paralysis — a state in which the speech act itself constitutes vulnerability exposure D(ξ_speech) within specific threat-laden social contexts, triggering a context-dependent wrong attractor W_silence. SM is not elective mutism or oppositional behavior but a functionally fixed inhibitory response: speech production is fully intact in safe contexts (S°_speech accessible) but blocked in high-threat contexts where speaking exposes the speaker to scrutiny, judgment, or social evaluation.
Nine formal propositions are derived covering: the context-specificity of SM as landscape-dependent accessibility (S°_speech reachable at home, unreachable in school), the developmental onset window (ages 2-5) as critical period for social threat calibration, anxiety as the displacement mechanism (speech = vulnerability exposure, silence = displacement-cost minimization), behavioral inhibition and sensory processing sensitivity as constitutional factors raising baseline D(ξ_social), the SM-social anxiety disorder overlap (SM as extreme developmental variant of SAD with earlier onset), selective mutism as self-reinforcing wrong attractor (avoidance prevents disconfirmation, deepening W_silence basin), secondary displacement through academic exclusion and social isolation, the defreezing problem (graduated exposure therapy as landscape modification reducing D(ξ_speech) in previously unsafe contexts), and the return path via PCIT-SM, CAMS, and school-based exposure protocols.
The framework formally distinguishes SM from autism spectrum communication differences and from voluntary silence.