#DISSOCIATION AND SIGNS OF TRAUMA MANUAL#

Childhood trauma, in particular, such as physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, poses a significant risk that the affected child will develop a dissociative disorder.Īccording to research published in Clinical Psychopharmacology and Neuroscience, ‘patients with dissociative disorders report the highest frequency of childhood abuse and/or neglect among all psychiatric disorders.’ Single events other than childhood trauma can also lead to dissociation, such as exposure to natural disasters, combat in war, or witnessing a violent crime. Traumatic events in both childhood and adulthood can lead to dissociation. ĭissociation usually happens in response to stress and overwhelm. Many people who experience dissociation report feeling as though they have left their body and are watching their life events unfold from a distance. There is a loss of one’s sense of identity. The experience is typically uncomfortable and can be frightening.

A person experiencing dissociation feels separate from their thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, and behaviour. Mindfulness, of course, is the most cited example of a psychological technique that developed from a religious (specifically a Buddhist) source, but the observation applies more widely.Dissociation is a term used to refer to the phenomena of disconnecting from oneself. In this respect, therapy bears a close relationship to philosophy and many religious traditions, in particular those based on meditation and self-reflection. Indeed, an important part of therapy (though not the only part!) is the communication of knowledge in order to generate self-understanding. Psychotherapy, by contrast, is often more effective when the person in therapy develops an understanding of how his or her thoughts operate. An operation or pill can work just as well regardless of how well you understand its mechanism. This reminds us of a fundamental difference between mental health and other areas of medicine. What I find most fascinating about Fisher’s book is the way she shows that people who have experienced complex trauma can progress better in therapy when they have a good understanding of their fragmented personality, what caused it, and what sustains it. The path to healing, Fisher explains, is found in genuine self-love - in the desire to care for each part of your personality.ĭissociative episodes can be painful, frightening, and disturbing, often highly so, but hating a part of yourself only prolongs the agony. having a number of distinct identities, such as in DIDĭissociation can occur in many mental health conditions, particularly those that have links with trauma, such as dissociative disorders and borderline personality disorder (BPD).forgetting personal information or events.feeling separate from what’s around you, or the world around you feels unreal.a disconnect from your body, or an out-of-body experience.In such a situation, the one experiencing abuse has to learn to function in a dual way, seeing the same person both as a threat and a source of essential goods.ĭissociation - the fracturing of the personality into different parts - is the easiest, and perhaps the only possible, way of doing this.ĭissociation is a different experience for different people. One of the most extreme, but far from rare, situations that humans have to develop coping mechanisms for is abuse at the hands of a caregiver.įisher explains the mechanism by which children who experienced abuse, people who have been kidnapped, and other survivors of complex trauma cope with the most horrific forms of violence and cruelty by dissociating - that is to say, separating the part of their personality that experiences the abuse from the parts that experience other aspects of life.ĭissociation is particularly essential when the abuse happens at the hands of a primary caregiver who is also responsible for providing food, shelter, and physical protection. Perhaps its most remarkable feature is its ability to learn and adapt to different environments. The human brain is a remarkable machine, refined by millions of years of evolution for survival. She explains a biological mechanism for these symptoms, which makes sense in the light of contemporary neuroscience and the study of human and animal behavior.

#DISSOCIATION AND SIGNS OF TRAUMA MANUAL#

Dissociation and fragmentation of the selfĪs the subtitle “Overcoming Internal Self-Alienation” indicates, a central theme of the book is the phenomenon of dissociation, which is found in so many survivors of trauma.ĭissociation doesn’t just affect those who meet the criteria for dissociative identity disorder (DID) as found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5).įisher discusses the ways that dissociation, or alienation, manifests itself in people who have been through extended periods of trauma.

Dissociation and signs of trauma