The Dissociative Processing Style: A Cognitive Organization Activated by Perceived or Actual Threat in Clinical Dissociators

SUMMARY

This paper proposes a cognitive organization that operates during times of perceived or actual threat in individuals with dissociative psychopathology. This organization, referred to as the dissociative processing style (DPS), serves as a threat monitoring system. It is characterized by (1) a shift from selective attention processing to multiple streams of information processing, (2) weakened cognitive inhibitory functioning which allows these streams to be operational and (3) the directing of awareness towards some and away from other information streams. Whilst DPS activation has the potential for adaptive and protective functions, it also heightens the likelihood of dissociative symptom experience and dissociation itself. Dissociation is understood as a failure to integrate encoded information from multiple input streams. The DPS is argued to be activated by top-down processes which signal danger, such as the appraisal of contextual cues. A clinical example is used to highlight the characteristics of the DPS.

KEYWORDS:

• Dissociative processing style
• dissociation
• cognition