Defensive Attractors: Recursive Stabilization and the Dynamics of Meaning in Cultural Systems

Recurring patterns of polarization, scapegoating, bureaucratic rigidity and retaliatory escalation appear across cultures and historical periods. These phenomena are typically interpreted through ideological, moral or psychological frameworks. This paper proposes an alternative explanation grounded in dynamical systems theory. Cultural meaning systems are modelled as attractor landscapes within a shared cognitive phase space in which interpretations, emotional responses and social narratives interact dynamically. Drawing on cybernetics, resilience theory, developmental psychology and complexity science, the paper specifies defensive attractors—rigid, emergent configurations of meaning that form under conditions of uncertainty and threat—as a distinct class of meaning‐stabilizing dynamics within cultural phase space. A formal conceptual model defines state variables (interpretive configuration, emotional valence and narrative coherence), control parameters (uncertainty, perceived threat and ambiguity tolerance) and derived constructs (attractor depth, basin stability and metastability). The model is extended to multiscale systems, analysing defensive attractor dynamics at individual, network and institutional levels. The reorganization proposition—that adaptive reorganization increases as ambiguity tolerance rises relative to uncertainty and perceived threat—is developed through engagement with resilience theory and coordination dynamics. An illustrative analysis of pandemic‐era cultural polarization demonstrates the model's operationalizability. Empirical and computational pathways for model development are outlined.