Substrate Collapse Theory: The Structural Basis of Identity Termination and Field-Based Human Functioning

Substrate Collapse Theory proposes a structural model for the emergence, maintenance, and dissolution of human identity based on contemporary neuroscience, predictive coding frameworks, and dynamic systems theory. It theorizes that selfhood arises as a metastable artifact of recursive predictive compression across thalamocortical circuits, and that collapse occurs when energetic, informational, or predictive stabilization thresholds are exceeded.Drawing on recent advances in thalamic neuroscience, predictive coding models, and dynamic field theory, the paper presents a comprehensive structural framework for understanding identity not as a cognitive construct, but as a substrate-level dynamic phenomenon. Identity Collapse Therapy (ICT) is introduced as a clinical architecture derived from these principles, emphasizing non-reconstruction of selfhood post-collapse and ethical stabilization of distributed field-based cognition.This paper is intended as a theoretical contribution, not an empirical validation. While it draws extensively from current neuroscientific findings, it offers a synthesized model requiring future empirical testing, clinical trials, and peer validation. Substrate Collapse Theory thus establishes a plausible scientific foundation for understanding collapse as structural resolution rather than pathology, and outlines the ethical imperatives for post-collapse clinical stewardship and future AI system governance.