Intermittent reinforcement
The relief never lasted. It lasted just long enough.
Intermittent reinforcement is inconsistency that binds, where warmth, approval, clarity, or closeness appear unpredictably, keeping people working harder to recover them.
Truth-adjacency
Truth-independent — the pattern works regardless of whether the claim is true
Department
Covenant of Final Harmony (CFH)
Engine Signals
The engine detects these phrases and patterns:
cycle of rupture and repairjust when I was going to leavethings are getting betterthe good times prove it How to recognize it
The relief never lasted. It lasted just long enough.
What to ask
- Am I tracking the whole cycle or only the repair phase?
- Do I make important decisions differently during a relief window?
- Would I stay if the good moments were predictable and steady instead of rare and intense?
What it looks like when you’re wrong about it
Normal ups and downs in a relationship are not intermittent reinforcement. The pattern requires unpredictability itself to become the mechanism of attachment.
Misuse Guardrails
How this pattern gets misused
The term gets misused to describe any inconsistent reward or mixed signal. Real intermittent reinforcement creates a binding chase that keeps people reorganizing around the next good phase.
What it looks like when you're wrong about it
Normal ups and downs in a relationship are not intermittent reinforcement. The pattern requires unpredictability itself to become the mechanism of attachment.
Related Patterns
The name is designed to spread. The hook is designed to stick. If you recognized something, share the name.