Dissociation

Dissociation One of the strongest predictors of dissociation is antecedent trauma, particularly early childhood trauma, as well as difficulties with attachment and parental unavailability. -Bethany L Brand and Ruth A Lanius

Dissociation in trauma entails a division of an individual’s personality, i.e., of the dynamic, biopsychosocial system as a whole that determines his or her characteristic mental and behavioral actions. This division of personality constitutes a core feature of trauma. It evolves when the individual lacks the capacity to integrate adverse experiences in part or in full, can support adaptation in this context, but commonly also implies adaptive limitations. The division involves two or more insufficiently integrated dynamic, that is changeable, but excessively rigid subsystems. These subsystems exert functions, and can encompass any number of different dynamic configurations of brain, body, and environment. These different configurations manifest as dynamic actions and implied dynamic states. The dissociative subsystems can be latent, or activated in a sequence or in parallel. Each dissociative subsystem, i.e., dissociative part of the personality includes its own, at least rudimentary person perspectives, that is, its own epistemic pluralism and epistemic dependency. As each dissociative part, the individual can interact with other dissociative parts and other individuals, at least in principle. Dissociative parts maintain permeable biopsychosocial boundaries that keep them divided, but that they can in principle dissolve. Phenomenologically, this division of the personality manifest in dissociative symptoms that can be categorized as negative or positive, and cognitive-emotional or sensorimotor.