Dementia

Senile dementia is read as a withdrawal from a reality felt as too painful to face. The pattern is a chronic difficulty meeting life's situations out of fear and hurt, so one "numbs" oneself to one's surroundings and inner feelings - having suffered so much that one no longer wants to feel - and a sense of no longer being loved or of being forgotten that turns into forgetting oneself and others. Feeling unrecognised in one's life, one stops recognising others, withdrawing into one's own bubble. The short explanation's feeling bad about oneself - guilt, a sense of being inadequate - sits in that painful withdrawal. Relief is described, in that framework, as feeling recognised and loved and gently met in the present, with the support such a condition requires.

(Note: this is a metaphysical interpretation, not a medical account of dementia, which is a serious condition requiring proper care.)

Example from the findings: dementia is read as numbing oneself against a reality too painful to feel, forgetting a self that felt unrecognised.