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Sireana Ison

Professor Rebecca Morean

English 1201-515

13 March 2020

Dissociation: Effective or Ineffective?

Dissociation at face value is a coping mechanism used by the brain to defend itself from

trauma, anxiety, and a multitude of other stressful or harmful situations. While there are many

dissociative disorders with varying symptoms and causes, each share one thing in common: the

act of dissociating and the inability to treat it with prescription drugs. Dissociation is something

that is still being studied and learned about, though there is not much new information circulating

the subject. Though when trying to understand dissociation there are some important questions

that should be asked. Why does dissociation occur, what causes it, and how does the body see

it as an effective response to stressful or mundane situations?

The conversation between the five chosen sources shares a lot of similarities.

However, the main idea that all of these sources agree on is that dissociation and dissociative

disorders are caused by some sort of trauma or neglect, childhood being the most common.

Sar, a neurobiologist taking innovative steps towards treatment and understanding of

dissociation claims, “Dissociation is the ultimate form of human response to chronic

developmental stress, because patients with dissociative disorders report the highest frequency of

childhood abuse and/or neglect among all psychiatric disorders.” (Sar) and McCollum, a clinical

psychologist studying generational dissociation claims that this abuse can be generational from

previously abused parent to child stating that it creates, “families... [that] seem unaware that

abuse ever happened, or, if it did, that it was harmful. Such ongoing lack of awareness and
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subsequent reenactment can be described as multigenerational dissociation.” (McCollum) While

multigenerational dissociation is less common, it is often spoken of in connection with childhood

trauma as a consequence of this trauma being improperly treated and causing dissociation as a

coping mechanism.

One of the biggest things that the sources are in a disagreement about is whether or not

adults can suddenly develop dissociative disorders (furthermore DD). While some disorders are

always developed in childhood (such as dissociative identity disorder) others can develop during

adulthood and have lasting effects on an individual’s mental health and wellbeing. Tyson D.

Bailey, a clinical psychologist studying how traumatic dissociation affects adults and children

agrees that, “Highly dissociative adults are likely to suffer from a variety of psychological

disorders and psychiatric difficulties…These studies and others indicate that individuals with

DDs are under-recognized and rarely receive treatment targeting dissociation.” (Bailey) While

most other sources do not acknowledge adulthood DDs at all and primarily focus on DDs

developed from childhood trauma. Multiple sources also disagree on how DDs should be treated.

Some agree that DDs can only be treated from an early point in life which likely stems from the

fascination these researchers have with DDs developed from childhood and not adulthood.

International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, an organization with a database

of public and professional resources in the support of DDs including professional education,

training, and events suggests therapy and learning emotional regulation, while Lainus, a

neuroscientist with a heavy focus on neurological research and developing treatment for

dissociative disorders states in their neurological research that these disorders are "treatment

resistant" (i.e., it does not respond to antidepressant pharmacotherapy while the depressive
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symptoms disappear instantly upon integration in psychotherapy)” (Lainus) and offers no other

solutions as they are still being researched for effectiveness.

While exploring these five sources, they have provided a plethora of information to

answer part of my research question, but some of the information has also prompted other

questions. Why does dissociation occur, and what causes it? Dissociation occurs as a trauma

response, trauma being a blanket term. While most commonly beginning in childhood, there is

a discrepancy among some researchers about whether or not it can come about in adulthood

and whether or not dissociative disorders have the ability to go away. How does the body see

dissociation as an effective response to stressful or mundane situations? More information is

needed to develop a good answer this this portion of the research question, but the brain

dissociates as an attempt to protect the individual from certain situations in multiple ways

depending on the disorder. Dissociative amnesia can cause a person to forget an event

entirely, dissociative identify disorder creates multiple alters in one body with amnesic walls

in between each alter, each alter holding memories and having their own sense of identity

from another in the same body to protect itself from extreme trauma (this is the only

dissociative disorder that is proven to only begin from a very young age) and

depersonalization causes one to lose their sense of self and view themselves from afar and

having impaired senses. Not much else is stated about generalized DDs and derealization

other than that they are slightly similar to the symptoms of depersonalization. Essentially,

depending on how the trauma is received and how the body decides to respond is how an

individual’s DD will be categorized. The information gathered thus far prompts more research

to be gathered and perhaps a rework of the research question to allow for research to be better

organized and a focus on different topics regarding dissociation.

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Works Cited

Bailey, Tyson D., and Bethany L. Brand. “Traumatic Dissociation: Theory, Research, and

Treatment.” Clinical Psychology: Science & Practice, vol. 24, no. 2, June 2017, pp.

170–185. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/cpsp.12195.

International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. “Dissociation FAQs.” ISSTD, 6

Mar. 2019, www.isst-d.org/resources/dissociation-faqs.

Lanius, Ruth A. “Trauma-related dissociation and altered states of consciousness: a call for

clinical, treatment, and neuroscience research.” European journal of

psychotraumatology vol. 6 27905. 19 May. 2015, doi:10.3402/ejpt.v6.27905

McCollum, Sally E. “Multigenerational Dissociation: A Framework for Building Narrative.”

Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, vol. 16, no. 5, Oct. 2015, pp. 563–576. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1080/15299732.2015.1030717.

Şar, Vedat. “The many faces of dissociation: opportunities for innovative research in

psychiatry.” Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience: the official scientific

journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology vol. 12,3 (2014): 171-9.

doi:10.9758/cpn.2014.12.3.171