Sunday, December 31, 2006

dissociation

Dissociation is a mental process in which the main, host identity is no longer fully aware of the contents of consciousness. This is different than sleep and unconsciousness in that a different segment of the consciousness, an alter identity or personality, is awake and conscious during dissociation.

Dissociative symptoms exist on a spectrum. Dissociation can be partial and result in not feeling fully conscious and in control of thoughts, feelings, and actions. Depersonalization, a sense of not being oneself, is a mild form of dissociation. Highway hypnosis, drifting off into thought during lectures, performing on 'automatic pilot', daydreaming, and deep absorption in a book, or the internet, are all mild forms of dissociation from externals. In essence, the object of consciousness has moved inward and narrowed in such examples.

At other times, dissociation is complete and results in amnesia for events that happened during the dissociative event. This is experienced as a disruption in the continuity of time, resembling the cut from one scene to another that we observe in motion pictures and television dramas. Episodes where the person is unaware of actions, particularly of movement from one locale to another, are often called dissociative fugues, or fugue states.

Dissociative episodes are most often brief, a matter of minutes to hours. However, some survivors with DID experience protracted episodes that may last months.
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