Personal Identity as a Space of Constraints: Persistence, Collapse, and Typological Drift in the Human Subject

This paper systematically applies the framework of identity as a space of stratified constraints (Montanino 2026a) to personal identity. The reference type is fixed as T_person = living human being as an integrated psychophysical organism, on the basis of robust convergence among competent observers. The model produces four primary constraints (biological substrate, conscious functionality, processual cognitive continuity, neurophysiological organisation) and three qualifying constraints (biographical telos, narrative continuity, institutional recognition). Paradigmatic cases are analysed: Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, cerebral bisection, brain death, coma, mind upload, gender transition. An interspecies biological comparison with great apes (chimpanzee, bonobo) and Neanderthal is introduced, together with an analysis of ontogenetic development (infancy, adolescence, old age). Traditional theories (Lockean, animalist, narrative) are subsumed as partial subsets of V. The model generates operationally falsifiable predictions for criminal responsibility, declarations of death, legal capacity, guardianship of minors and elderly persons