Dementia as Progressive Ground State Dissolution: Memory Architecture, Identity Displacement, and the Caregiver as External S0 Container

We apply the Displacement Framework to dementia, arguing that unlike other diseases where the system is displaced from S0, dementia progressively destroys the return infrastructure itself. The hippocampus is the return-path anchor; its erosion severs the connection between present experience and personal ground state. Wandering, agitation, confabulation, and repetitive questioning are formalized as displacement signatures of a system searching for an inaccessible attractor.

The caregiver is formalized as an external S0 container. Environmental design is analyzed as matched-landscape construction. Lewy body dementia is modeled as fluctuating ground state access. Five formal propositions and a comparative diagnostic table are provided.