Dissociative Mind Research Articles

"I've never been that traditional domestic Turkish woman": Self, culture, and the dissociative mind

There is an increasing overlap between contemporary interpersonal/relational theories and psychological anthropology, especially related in their conceptual formulations of, respectively, the self and culture as dynamic, multiplicious, and discontinuous process. The author argues that these corresponding formulations behoove us consider self and culture are interwoven processes that continuously inform and shape each other, and are shaped by dissociative mental processes. Drawing from a series of ethnographic interviews and participant observation conducted among a cohort of Turkish women, the author argues during the process of enculturation, people learn pertinent, yet devalued, aspects of their culture, and incorporate them into their self-consciousness disjointly. These disjointed aspects of the self can become activated, however, during experiences of cultural discontinuity; the result is often disorganization and inner-conflict regarding identity.

Book review: The Dissociative Mind in Psycholanalysis. Understanding and working with trauma

Book review: The Dissociative Mind in Psycholanalysis. Understanding and working with trauma

“T” in Interpellation Stands for Terror: Commentary on Paper by Orna Guralnik and Daphne Simeon

Closing the gap between recognition and interpellation is an important perspective to add to our armamentarium in considering depersonalization and its relief. The perspective of interpellation can help us understand how society contributes to devastating emotional experience that likely evokes dissociative process to become persistently overactive. I suspect that societal interpellation maintains depersonalization more than it causes it, that family dynamics are hidden in societal discourse, and that a clinician who draws out this perspective, as appropriate, gains credibility and provides relief in the provision of safety essential for the dissociative mind to change its modus operandi and be less isolated from self and other.

Chronic traumatization: Disrupted attachment and the dissociative mind. Eerste conferentie van de ESTD. Amsterdam, 17-19 april 2008

De eerste tweejaarlijkse conferentie van de European Society for Trauma and Dissociation (ESTD) in de comfortabele ruimtes van het Movenpick-hotel ademt een sfeer van bedrijvigheid en enthousiasme. Weken voor aanvang waren de ruim 450 plaatsen al besproken door deelnemers uit tientallen landen. Op de openingsavond schetst Suzette Boon, president van de ESTD, deze eerste conferentie als een forum om kennis van de gevolgen van chronische traumatisering en dissociatieve problematiek te delen en als een plek om interessante collega’s te ontmoeten. De conferentie maakt deze verwachtingen ruimschoots waar. De gevarieerde lezingen besteden aandacht aan mensen bij wie de traumatisering op kinderleeftijd is begonnen en aan de gevolgen daarvan op het vermogen tot hechting, op de organisatie van de persoonlijkheid en op neurobiologische mechanismen. Van ongeveer vijftig parallel geprogrammeerde lezingen kon iedere deelnemer er een dozijn bijwonen. Van deze twaalf lezingen heb ik er vier ter bespreking uitgekozen vanwege hun verhelderende inzicht in datgene wat het werk met chronisch getraumatiseerde mensen met dissociatieve problematiek anders maakt dan het werk met mensen die op latere leeftijd een traumatische ervaring hebben opgedaan.

Review of The dissociative mind.

Reviews the book, The dissociative mind by Elizabeth F. Howell (see record 2005-14945-000). In her book, The Dissociative Mind, Elizabeth Howell presents a complex and thorough overview of what she describes as a "sea change" in psychoanalytic theory. From her vantage point as both psychoanalyst and traumatologist, she demonstrates how, in the last 15-20 years, relational trauma and the resulting impact on the individual mind-namely the splits and fissures that comprise dissociation- have made their way back into psychoanalytic thinking. Howell's elaboration of the overwhelmed, traumatized mind is very useful in clients who present with problems in thinking or who have limited capacity to symbolize. However, detailed clinical material of how an analyst thinking of dissociated self states would work with such a client, what Bromberg termed the "relational bridge," would support her fundamental assertions more effectively. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

The Associative Mind: Review and Commentary on The Dissociative Mind by Elizabeth Howell

The Associative Mind: Review and Commentary on The Dissociative Mind by Elizabeth Howell