ZLT-P42: The Interpersonal Trap — Structural Negligence in Relational Intensity: A Zero Leap Theory Analysis of When Trying Harder Pushes People Away

Trying harder is not neutral: against closed consent gates, intensity is structurally guaranteed to push people away — and v2.0 proves where every piece of that claim comes from. Version 2.0 upgrades every central formal claim of v1.0 from assertion to derivation. Theorem 3.1 (Consent Collapse) now rests on the Grade A uniqueness result C_viable = (1+rECI)⁻¹ under axioms E1–E5 (P50). Theorem 3.2 (Forced Intervention Amplifies Harm) is derived from resistance axioms R2/R4 and the Idolatry Amplification Theorem (P74-E): effort under an inverted model of the other (Π < 0) is anti-work, empirically anchored at −7.7pp versus baseline. The Non-Exitability Theorem promised in v1.0 is delivered as Theorem 3.3 via the Pharisee Failure Theorem (P76): high rECI instantiates K = 0, and knowledge is structurally inert without exit capacity — computationally confirmed by P85. New in v2.0: rECI re-aligned to the canonical ECI v2.1 (P12) with four-component decomposition; rECI-Max with a mandatory safety override eliminating the v1.0 false-negative pathway; the canonical four-tier scale with the 0.50 boundary grounded in P81B; rECI(t) with the Relational Adiabatic Capture corollary (P65) — capture without a decisive event, the structural shape of coercive control law; the Relational Operator Coercion Index (rOCI) separating circumstantial from perpetrator-constructed dependency; the Via Negativa elevated to theorem via P0C Non-Commutativity; the P18 repair boundary (stopping harm ≠ reversing harm; cheap forgiveness is impossible; 0% passive recovery); and a clinical regime bifurcation (P90) that independently derives the established contraindication of couples therapy under active coercive violence from structural first principles. The paper specifies its own failure conditions: seven pre-registered predictions and six falsifiers (§11.1), including incremental validity over established instruments. Empirical execution is governed by the companion pre-registration ZLT-P42-DRC. No new empirical results are claimed. Scientific position: structural systems analysis — not a psychological theory of personality, not a therapeutic protocol, not individual diagnosis. Keywords:Zero Leap Theory, ZLT, Interpersonal Trap, rECI, rOCI, Exit Coercion Index, consent viability, coercive control, adiabatic capture, non-exitability, Via Negativa, kenotic plasticity, ZLC Triple, Pharisee Failure, repair asymmetry, structural negligence, demand withdraw, IAS-INTERPERSONAL, falsifiability, pre-registration