The Mind in Fragments: The Neuroscientific, Developmental, and Traumatic Roots of Dissociation and Their Implications for Clinical Practice

Abstract

In this article, I highlight the life-long impact of early relational trauma on a person's psychological and emotional development and its role in creating dissociation. I discuss the differing views in the psychotherapy world over the relative importance of dissociation and repression and explore the historical roots of these differing views in the fundamentally different models of the mind offered by Freud and Jung. I describe the neuroscientific basis for dissociation. I give an account of some clinical work with a dissociative patient and discuss the modifications to psychoanalytic technique that are necessary when working with severely dissociative patients.