dissociation

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

a disruption in the normally integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, behaviour, and sense of self, existing on a spectrum from normal everyday experiences such as highway hypnosis and absorption in a book, to pathological dissociation including depersonalisation, derealisation, dissociative amnesia, and dissociative identity disorder; pathological dissociation typically arises as an adaptive response to overwhelming trauma, allowing the person to psychologically escape an experience that cannot be physically escaped; dissociative symptoms are transdiagnostic features present in PTSD, BPD, conversion disorder, and as discrete dissociative disorders; treatment involves stabilisation, trauma processing using phase-based approaches, and integration work that helps the person develop a coherent narrative of their experience