Abstract
Background: Extensive research has demonstrated the positive associations among the exposure to traumatic experiences, the levels of dissociation, and the severity of psychiatric symptoms in adults. However, it has been hypothesized in clinical literature that an excessive activation of the dissociative processes following multiple traumatic experiences may jeopardize the psychological and behavioral functioning of the individuals, fostering higher levels of maladaptive personality functioning.Methods: The study involved 322 adult volunteers from Italy. Participants completed measures on traumatic experiences, dissociation, and maladaptive personality traits.Results: The number of traumatic experiences reported by participants were positively associated with dissociation scores and maladaptive personality scores. Mediation analyses showed that dissociation acted as a partial mediator in the relationship between traumatic experiences and overall maladaptive personality functioning. Regression curve analyses showed that the positive association between maladaptive personality functioning and dissociation was stronger among participants with higher exposure to traumatic experiences.Conclusion: Exposure to multiple traumatic experiences may increase the risk for an excessive activation of the dissociative processes, which in turn may generate severe impairments in multiple domains of personality functioning.
Highlights
Dissociation is a mental process already available in early stages of development, which allows an individual to tolerate distressing events by splitting off highly incoherent or overwhelming thoughts, memories, and feelings [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
When an individual is exposed to multiple traumatic experiences, and especially when such experiences started to occur during childhood—when a child has little capacity for Trauma, Dissociation, and Personality Functioning self-regulation—dissociation may become a “psychological organizer” of the entire personality of the individual [5, 9,10,11,12]
This conceptualization of dissociation as a protective function of the mind, which is, sensitive to the experiences of chronic traumatization to the point that it can even generate a functional reorganization of personality into distinct structures not fully integrated between them, has been widely endorsed in clinical literature [13,14,15,16] and is consistent with contemporary neurobiological findings, supporting the view that trauma is often linked to pathological dissociation [17,18,19,20,21,22]
Summary
Dissociation is a mental process already available in early stages of development, which allows an individual to tolerate distressing events by splitting off highly incoherent or overwhelming thoughts, memories, and feelings [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. When an individual is exposed to multiple traumatic experiences, and especially when such experiences started to occur during childhood—when a child has little capacity for Trauma, Dissociation, and Personality Functioning self-regulation—dissociation may become a “psychological organizer” of the entire personality of the individual [5, 9,10,11,12] In these circumstances, the excessive activation of dissociative processes jeopardizes the mental and behavioral functioning of the individual so that dissociation becomes pathological and pervasive, and it may lead to severe psychiatric symptoms [5]. Extensive research has demonstrated the positive associations among the exposure to traumatic experiences, the levels of dissociation, and the severity of psychiatric symptoms in adults It has been hypothesized in clinical literature that an excessive activation of the dissociative processes following multiple traumatic experiences may jeopardize the psychological and behavioral functioning of the individuals, fostering higher levels of maladaptive personality functioning
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
