Dissociation

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Dissociation is a psychological state or condition in which certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, or memories are separated from the rest of the psyche. In the normal population mild dissociative experiences are highly prevalent, with 80% to 90% of the respondents indicating that they have had dissociative experiences at least some of the time. ^{[citation needed]}

The French psychiatrist Pierre Janet (1859-1947) coined the term in his book L'Automatisme psychologique; he emphasized its role as a defensive manoeuver in response to psychological trauma. While he considered dissociation an initially effective defence mechanism that withdraws the individual psychologically from the impact of overwhelming traumatic events, a habitual tendency to dissociate would, however, promote psychopathology.

The American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition considers symptoms such as depersonalization, derealization, and psychogenic amnesia to be core features of dissociative disorders.

Contents 1 See also 2 References & Bibliography 3 Key texts 3.1 Books 3.2 Papers 4 Additional material 4.1 Books 4.2 Papers 5 External links

[edit] See also

• Altered state of consciousness
• Amnesia
• Consciousness disturbances
• Consciousness states
• Depersonalization
• Dissociative amnesia
• Dissociative disorders
• Emotional detachment
• Fugue

• Recovered memory therapy

[edit] References & Bibliography

[edit] Key texts

[edit] Books

[edit] Papers

[edit] Additional material

[edit] Books

[edit] Papers

[edit] External links

• International Society for the Study of Dissociation A society that advances the formal study of dissociation and dissociative disorders.

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Dissociation. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.