The importance of fantasy‐proneness in dissociation: a replication

Abstract

AbstractPrevious research (Pekala, Kumar, Ainslie, Elliott, Mullen, Salinger and Masten, 1999/2000) found that dissociation, as measured by the ‘Dissociative Experiences Scale’ (DES) (Bernstein and Putnam, 1986), was predicted as much by fantasy‐proneness (Wilson and Barber, 1983a) as by child abuse (Sanders and Becker‐Lausen, 1995) in a substance abuse population. Although fantasy‐proneness is a variable mentioned in the literature (Wilson and Barber, 1983a; Lynn and Rhue, 1988; Lynn, Rhue and Green, 1988) as possibly related to dissociative disorders, child abuse is the variable most highlighted (Kluft, 1985; Courtois, 1988; Putnam, 1991; Herman, 1992) as aetiological to dissociative disorders. The results of Pekala et al. (1999/2000) suggested that fantasy‐proneness may be as important as child abuse in the development of the dissociative disorders. The present study, attempting to replicate those results, assessed dissociation (by use of the DES), child abuse (by use of the ‘Child Abuse and Trauma’ (CAT) scale) and fantasy‐proneness (by use of the ‘Inventory of Childhood Memories and Imaginings’ (ICMI)) in 77 male patients at substance abuse units. The ICMI correlated 0.48 (23% of the variance) with the DES, and the CAT total score correlated 0.25 (6.25% of the variance) with the DES. A regression analysis was used to predict dissociation using the five CAT sub‐scales alone, as well as those sub‐scales with fantasy‐proneness. Whereas the CAT sub‐scales alone accounted for 10% of the variance, the ICMI and the CAT sub‐scales together accounted for 35% of the variance. These results replicate the findings of the previous study (Pekala et al., 1999/2000) and support the inclusion of fantasy‐proneness as an important variable related to dissociation; possibly as important as child abuse in the development of such disorders. Copyright © 2001 British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis