Help! Selection tool functions switched / reversed!

This is driving me crazy and impeding my work.
The functionality of the selection tool (v) and the direct selection tool (a) have apparently switched. The selection tool behaves exactly like the direct selection tool should (example: click-dragging a selection over a point or path selects that point or path, not the whole object). The reverse is also true: the direct selection tool behaves as you would expect the direct selection tool should (example: click-dragging a selection over a point or path selects the whole object, not the point or path.
Platform: MacBook 2.4 Ghz, OS 10.6.5, CS5
Attempts at fixing: Deleted preferences for Illustrator (multiple times), including quitting Illustrator and restarting machine
Also, I went so far as creating a new user on my Mac, opening Illustrator, and testing the selection tools. Under a different user, these tools behave as expected, the selection tool behaves like the selection tool should, the direct selection tool behaves like the direct selection tool should.
Google and forum searches have yielded no help.
Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Yes, absolutely:
1) Quit Illustrator
2) Delete preferences
3) Restart Illustrator
I have tried deleting these files and folders:
1) user/Library/Preferences/Adobe Illustrator CS5 Settings
2) user/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Illustrator CS5
Perhaps there's some preferences file hierarchy that I'm not aware of, and I
need to delete a file higher up this hierarchy? Like
"com.adobe.CSXS2Preferences.plist"?
( It appears someone else has or had this problem:
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2488436#2488436 )
Thanks

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