PhronesisWe apply the Displacement Framework to developmental and persistent stuttering, formalizing it as a three-layer displacement structure. The fluency ground state S°_fluency is the state in which speech mechanics are automatic and below conscious attention — the listener hears only content, not the act of speaking. The primary displacement is neurological: basal ganglia and left cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical loop dysfunction creates D(ξ_fluency) as a primary constraint, with functional MRI evidence for right-hemisphere over-recruitment.
The secondary layer is psychological: anticipatory anxiety about stuttering creates D(ξ_anxiety) that paradoxically deepens disfluency through a self-fulfilling cycle. Nine formal propositions are derived covering: S°_fluency as automatic speaking-without-speaking-being-the-problem, neurological timing dysfunction as primary D(ξ_fluency) constraint, anticipatory anxiety as secondary basin-deepening layer, the feared-word anticipatory anxiety cycle as self-fulfilling prophecy, avoidance as wrong attractor that reduces local D(ξ) while deepening the long-term basin (the silence wrong attractor as the extreme case), fluency-chasing as paradoxical wrong-attractor maintenance, voluntary stuttering as counter-intuitive wrong-attractor exit, stuttering modification therapy as engagement-over-avoidance return path, and acceptance-based approaches as redefining S°_fluency to include stuttering rather than exclude it.
Covert stuttering — never stuttering in public through total avoidance — is formalized as the deepest possible wrong attractor.