PhronesisSensation-seeking excess — the pathological pole of Zuckerman's sensation-seeking trait in which the stimulation threshold has escalated beyond what ordinary life can provide — is here formally reconceptualized as a wrong attractor W_SS in the landscape of calibrated aliveness. The healthy ground state S^0 is defined as calibrated aliveness: genuine engagement with life at varying intensities, finding meaning and vitality across the full range of experience without tolerance-driven need for escalation.
W_SS is constituted by the tolerance mechanism: repeated exposure to extreme stimulation habituates the response, requiring escalation for equivalent subjective aliveness — formally analogous to drug tolerance and driven by similar dopaminergic mechanisms. Four escalation domains are characterized: physical risk, substance intensity, sexual intensity, and experience novelty. The quiet-intolerance paradox is central: as the stimulation threshold rises, ordinary quiet states become aversive, preventing the restorative states that would enable genuine recharging.
Nine formal propositions characterize the tolerance mechanism formalized as threshold ODE, the Optimal Level of Arousal framework, the four escalation domains, the quiet-intolerance paradox, neurobiological substrate (dopamine, DRD4), distinction from healthy novelty-seeking and flow, links to risky behavior, basin deepeners (ADHD, trauma-driven numbness), and return paths through somatic re-sensitization and graduated withdrawal.