Contents of Article
The self is born in a moment of empathic relatedness, and it can die too, in the absence of human responsiveness.
Russell Meares
Understanding dissociation and complex trauma: a spectrum of protection
As we move through life there can be these unexplainable encounters within the continuity of our embodied sense of Self. Like a dream they are there, yet they can be hard to grasp, to ground, to bring into any bounds of seeming sense. These encounters are often without accurate forms of languaging that describe their nuanced affect.
Conceivably we all in some way, shape, or form, have had an encounter with what felt like warped reality.
Perhaps you know the felt sense of a blurring obscurity; a vague haze of what you know to be real, yet in some way it does not feel real, it feels distant, indistinct, nebulous. Something seems to be there, but not there; here, yet not here; slow, yet fast, loud, yet quiet; an entanglement between me-not-me, inner-to-outer; a fugue of awareness that might quickly dissipate or linger.
These deeply disembodied Self-states can leave us discombobulated – confused, sometimes dazed about where time went and what was happening. For some of us, these states can be some of the most intrusive and terrifying spells. Particularly when we lose time, when the world goes black, and when we have no access to a connected, continuous, and coherent sense of Self – stuck in a heaviness marked by a cold, lost, disorienting sense of estranged disconnection: a chasm of alarmed aloneness.
We may call this the experience of dissociation.
The strange, hard-to-grasp continuum of phenomenological experiencing that, whilst known to many of us, especially those of us who have encountered burnout, breakdown, or trauma, is a concept that, in many ways, has been socioculturally simplified in a manner that collapses the living meaning of the continuum of dissociative experiencing.
Significantly, when we collapse this experience into objective absoluteness, we inadvertently circumvent the innate humanity that exists within dissociation: in the absence of complexity, dissociation’s inherent spectrum of protective meaning is bypassed. And in the bypassing, the continuum within and between the physiological, psychological, and relational elements of dissociation goes amiss. There is a subtle obliviousness toward what is needed for the connection, continuity, and coherence of Self-Other-World experiencing to be restored.
Certainly then, for conceptual clarity there is a need for a compassionate delineation of dissociation that incorporates a nuanced understanding of the continuum of phenomenological experience and its embodied and relational processes of protection.
What is dissociation?
Fundamentally, dissociation refers to a process wherein ordinarily associated elements of physiological, psychological, and relational experiencing are disconnected. Remarkably, this occurs at multiple levels of functioning and is an integral aspect of our everyday experiencing without our direct awareness of it.
Indeed, we might primarily conceptualise dissociation to be a form of protection that can emerge on a continuum of phenomenological experiencing. That is to say, dissociation is not an all-or-none experience. Dissociative processes are lived and felt across a wide spectrum of shifts, disruptions, adaptations, and alterations in our felt sense of connection, continuity, and coherence in time-space-place Self-Other-World experiencing.
In broader terms, dissociation can be seen as a process of dis-association or dis-integration that occurs against the background of our innate capacity to associate and integrate horizontal and vertical modes of processing, including affective and neuroceptive sensation, relational and regulatory perception, and semantic and sense-making interpretation.
Though such dis-associative processes occur within multiple modes of ordinary experience, when experience moves to a level where overwhelm exceeds all available internal and external resources, and when the very relationship that should offer refuge becomes inseparable from the terror itself, our systems begin to shift, disrupt, adapt, and alter in the service of survival. That is, transient and momentary lapses in association and integration move toward recurrent and patterned disruptions, and over time can intensify toward more enduring structural alterations.
With this in mind we can begin to see why it is important to conceptualise dissociation as something that emerges on a continuum of phenomenological experiencing and a spectrum of protective and thus adaptive alterations that create variations of ordinary to disorientating shifts across time-space-place and Self-Other-World experiencing. Shifts may range from brief, passing moments of distraction, subtle lapses in presence, remembering, and discernment, they may incorporate instances of numbness, move toward more disruptive and enduring states of absorption, they may also include occurrences of blurred awareness between inner and outer reality, amnesic detachment, and/or a vague undefinable sense of me-not-me.
Within this broad continuum of phenomenological experiencing, it is important to note that any enduring shifts, disruptions, adaptations, or alterations in the connection, continuity, and coherence of Self are inherently subjective physiological, psychological, and relational responses to conditions of threat without adequate protection.
From here we can begin to see that across this unfolding continuum of connection, continuity, and coherence there lies a vital cusp between alterations within Self-states and alterations within Self-structure. We might also then begin to see this cusp as an edge in presence or consciousness wherein intensifying and inescapable threat, particularly throughout development, move momentary Self-states of discontinuity and incoherence toward enduring neurobiological adaptations and alterations within the organisational structures of Self itself.
That is, when threat becomes inescapable and unresolvable, where the developing Self becomes continuously exposed to experiences of overwhelm, the Self’s very structure will begin to compartmentalise.
It is vital to keep in mind here, that whilst at this far end of the continuum alterations can be seen as enduring changes to the organisation of Self-structure, these changes are physiologically, psychologically, and relationally malleable and modifiable.
Though Self may have been structurally organised around inescapable and unresolvable threat, new experiences of safety, stability, and predictability in therapeutic connection can begin to restore Self connection, continuity, and coherence.
The spectrum of dissociation
Shifts, disruptions, adaptations, and alterations across time-space-place and Self-Other-World existing and experiencing
As explored above, the complexity of dissociative phenomena highlights the need for a compassionate delineation that incorporates a nuanced understanding of the continuum of phenomenological experience and its embodied and relational processes of protection. As dissociation moves along the continuum, a spectrum of protective and thus adaptive alterations create variations of ordinary to disorientating shifts across time-space-place and Self-Other-World existing and experiencing.
More specifically, as dissociative experiencing moves along the continuum, connection, continuity, and coherence become harder to preserve. Transient and momentary Self-state shifts move to recurrent and patterned Self-state disruptions and, if prolonged, toward enduring Self-structure adaptations and alterations. These can be seen as protective shifts in presence and consciousness that become more organised, patterned, and sustained in the service of survival.
Transient and momentary Self-state shifts
Attenuated presence, absorption, and ordinary lapses in awareness across time-space-place
We might here begin at the more ordinary day-to-day phenomenological experiences of dissociation. These experiences, not often seen per se as dissociation, carry an attenuation or thinning of presence. This is the place where our minds drift, where time speeds or slows, or where briefly our sense of space expands or contracts. 
These can be seen as Self-state shifts and might look like simply spacing out, becoming a little foggy, losing the thread of what we were speaking of, or perhaps feeling less connected to the present moment. There may be brief, yet transient moments of unrealness, distance, or slips in a sense of orientation. We may even place short spans of absorption here, the sense that we are fully immersed and one within what we are doing. These experiences are felt as shifts in our state of being or doing that, more often than not, go unrecognised – we easily return to our felt sense of connection, continuity, and coherence.
Importantly, within this end of the spectrum we might say that we are present enough to continue, yet not fully organised. This is the space where under certain circumstances our capacity to associate and integrate the internal or external flow of time-space-place experiencing briefly narrows. Rather than disruption, this is a relative lapse in neurobiological coordination or synchronisation; to be clear, when coordination or synchronisation narrows, presence attenuates.
Such attenuated presence may also be understood as transient and momentary shifts in embodied and relational processes of protection. Quite often these shifts in Self-states can be present throughout development where minute ruptures within the attachment relationship create a strain on our associative and integrative capacity to connect with our embodied sense of being and doing. When full contact with the here-and-now experiencing may ask too much of our system, we briefly retreat from experiential immediacy. Physiologically and psychologically, this allows us a small buffer from excessive external and/or internal demand. Without conscious activation, a transitory state emerges wherein we can preserve and return to Self connection, continuity, and coherence without the need to fully digest and metabolise what is happening.
To be succinct, transient and momentary Self-state shifts physiologically, psychologically, and relationally allow us a lapse in time-space-place processing and thus the capacity to cope with what, in that moment, is too much for our system to manage.
Recurrent and patterned Self-state disruptions
Contracted presence, detachment, intrusion, and altered continuity across Self-Other-World reality
Here we move to the less ordinary, and often more disorientating phenomenological experiences of dissociation. These experiences are those that are more commonly known as dissociation and carry a contracted sense of presence. We might even say, this is no longer just a thinning or narrowing within and between time-space-place, rather this is a span of detachment within and between Self-Other-World experiencing. These can be seen as Self-state disruptions and might look like a sense of being detached from our bodies, removed from our surroundings, cut off from our affect, partially overtaken by vivid memories, or disorientating intrusive internal dialogue. There may be a push and a pull between immediacy and distance that appears in a more recurrent and patterned manner. These experiences are felt as disruptions to our state of being and doing that begin to look less like ordinary lapses in awareness and more toward recognisable alterations to our felt sense of connection, continuity, and coherence.
Importantly, within this mid-range of the spectrum we might say that we are moving toward fugue presence where contact with our sensations, perceptions, and interpretations becomes noticeably contracted, yet not fully lost. This is a space where under certain circumstances our capacity to associate and integrate the internal or external flow of Self-Other-World organisation is beginning to fragment. Rather than a relative lapse, this is a disruption in neurobiological coordination and synchronisation that is mediated by the release of numerous analgesic neurochemicals such as endogenous opioid and endocannabinoid pathways; to be clear, it is with a repetition of disruptions to coordination and synchronisation that processes of dis-associative deafferentation – a progressive blocking of incoming sensory and affective signals from reaching fuller conscious awareness – begin to appear as more patterned processes of contracted presence.
Such patterned processes are semantically represented by the following descriptors:
Numbness
A dampening or absence of affective and bodily immediacy, where feeling becomes muted, distant, or hard to access. The person may know something matters without being able to feel it fully from within.
Analgesic states
A dissociative reduction in the felt intensity of pain, sensation, or bodily distress. The body may register less hurt than would ordinarily be expected, particularly under overwhelm, threat, or shock.
Intrusive states
Experiences that break into awareness with a sense of partial separateness from ordinary continuity of Self. These may include flashbacks, nightmares, or inner dialogue that feels inserted, autonomous, or not fully integrated into the ongoing flow of experience.
Void or fugue states
States of marked absence, emptiness, or discontinuity in which continuity of awareness, time, place, or Self-experience becomes significantly thinned or lost. At the edge of this band, experiences may begin to approach dissociative fugue, with confusion around identity, movement through space, or periods of lost time.
Discontinuous responsiveness
A disruption in the person’s capacity to respond in a steady, continuous, and integrated way across moments, situations, or relational contact. Responses may become abrupt, absent, delayed, shifted, or disconnected from what seemed present only moments before.
Disorientation
A loosening of ordinary orientation to time, place, body, context, or interpersonal reality. The person may feel confused, ungrounded, unreal, or uncertain about where they are, what is happening, or how they are situated in the moment.
Depersonalisation
A dissociative experience of distance from one’s body, personhood, or immediate Self-experience. The person may feel detached from themselves, as though observing rather than fully inhabiting their own being.
Derealisation
A dissociative experience in which the outer world feels strange, distant, dreamlike, flattened, or unreal. Surroundings remain physically present, though the felt sense of shared reality becomes altered or thinned.
We may also understand such contracted presence as recurrent and patterned disruptions in embodied and relational processes of protection. More often than not these disruptions in Self-states begin throughout development where there may be experiences of adversity, abuse, neglect, rejection, or abandonment within the attachment relationship. These experiences, especially when repeated, create a form of altered access to our associative and integrative capacity to connect with our embodied sense of being and doing. When contact with the then-and-there, here-and-now, or yet-to-come experiencing may ask too much of our systems, we recurrently reduce immediacy by distancing from Self-Other-World reality processing. Physiologically and psychologically, this allows us to dampen intense arousal, pain, dread, alarm, or fright. Without conscious activation these disruptions simultaneously preserve the attachment relationship and some semblance of safety in the service of survival. This in turn allows us to endure despite the need to digest and metabolise what is happening.
To be succinct, recurrent and patterned Self-state disruptions physiologically, psychologically, and relationally allow us to disconnect from Self-Other-World reality and thus provide the capacity to cope with what is continuously too much for our systems to manage.
Enduring Self-structure adaptations and alterations
Fractured presence, compartmentalisation, and fragmentation across time-space-place Self-Other-World existing and experiencing
This is now where phenomenological experiences of dissociation have moved beyond both the ordinary Self-state shifts and the less than ordinary disorientating disruptions in Self-states toward jarring alterations within the felt sense of subsistence. These experiences are those that carry fractured presence within and between phenomenological experiencing and existing. We might even say that whilst there is a paradoxical similarity of Self-state disruptions and a span of detachment within and between Self-Other-World experiencing, this detachment is now paralleled with a compartmentalisation of Self-state shifts within and between time-space-place. These can be seen as enduring neurobiological adaptations and alterations in Self-structure and might look like an ongoing sense of lostness, a confusion wherein powerful shifts between the here-and-now, the then-and-there, and the yet-to-come create a disconcerting felt sense of not knowing. Such not knowing may also be felt as a destabilising discontinuity wherein there can be quick devolutions toward a diffuse sense of aliveness or beingness, an intense sense of impending death or doom, disembodied rage, voids of darkness, fragmenting inescapable nightmares, ethereal dialogue, indistinguishable bounds of real-not-real and me-not-me, as well as a discombobulating fragmented sense of who, what, when, where, why. These experiences are now not simply more recurrent and patterned disruptions to states of being and doing, rather they are lived adaptations and alterations that exist within our neurobiological structural organisation and emerge as sharp alterations to our ongoing felt sense of connection, continuity, and coherence.
Importantly, within this high-range of the spectrum we might say we have moved into splintered and structurally isolated presence where contact with our sensations, perceptions, and interpretations has become severely contracted, and at times fully lost. This is a space where due to unrelenting adverse circumstances our capacity to associate and integrate the internal or external flow of time-space-place experiencing, as well as our capacity to associate and integrate the internal or external flow of Self-Other-World organisation has fundamentally fragmented. Rather than relative lapses or disruptions in neurobiological coordination and synchronisation, this is an enduring multifaceted, multidimensional, multilayered, and fractally patterned process of disorganisation within and between functional mechanisms of horizontal and vertical processing. To be clear, whilst there is no one neurobiological biomarker that indicates enduring Self-structure adaptations and alterations, there are increasingly evidenced adaptations and alterations to large-scale network coordination and synchronisation where processes of dis-associative deafferentation, the progressive blocking of incoming sensory and affective signals, have over time disrupted the very integrative conditions from which a connected, continuous, and coherent felt sense of Self with presence might form.
We may also understand such fractured presence as enduring structural adaptations and alterations in embodied and relational processes of protection. Such enduring neurobiological adaptations and alterations to the structural organisation of the Self begin early in development where relentless experiences o
f adversity, abuse, neglect, rejection, or abandonment within the attachment relationship are inescapable. These experiences create an ongoing need for our system to distribute the overwhelm rather than to process it as one continuous whole. As such our associative and integrative capacity to connect with an embodied sense of being and doing becomes structurally dispersed and compartmentalised. That is, when the inescapability of threatening circumstances continuously asks too much of our system we adapt by segmenting and distributing incompatible realities, then-and-there context, here-and-now experiencing, innate affect propensities, as well as disseminating the capacity for time-space-place, Self-Other-World reality processing. Physiologically and psychologically, this allows us to obstruct intense affective and neuroceptive sensory stimuli and sensorimotor feedback whilst simultaneously obstructing our inherent action impulses that arise from such and may perpetuate relational terror. Such obstructions, whilst imperative in the preservation of the attachment relationship during dependency periods and thus our capacity to survive the unsurvivable, create enduring neurobiological adaptations and alterations to the forming Self-structure. We prevail, yet at a cost to Self.
To be succinct, enduring Self-structure adaptations and alterations physiologically, psychologically, and relationally allow us to obstruct time-space-place, Self-Other-World existing and experiencing and thus neurobiologically provide the capacity to preserve the attachment relationship and survive chronic inescapable terror.
As we are beginning to see, there is a distinct emergence to the complexity of dissociative phenomena that has been highlighted through a continuum of phenomenological experiencing. Such has been delineated and nuanced as an embodied and relational process of protection, a movement of adaptive alterations to our very sense of Self, and indeed at the enduring end, the neurobiological structure of Self begins to organise in preservation of the attachment relationship. This is, as highlighted, in contrast to the more everyday end, where movements in embodied and relational processes of protection reflect transient and momentary Self-state shifts. On the continuum these are seen as variations of ordinary to disorientating shifts across time-space-place and Self-Other-World existing and experiencing, particularly within and between the realms of inner-and-outer reality alongside a permeable sense of me-not-me existence. And certainly, across each of these, physiologically, psychologically, and relationally, our capacity to associate and integrate the flow of time-space-place, Self-Other-World existing and experiencing shifts, disrupts, adapts, and alters in the service of survival.
With this in mind, it cannot be negated that these processes remain neurobiologically malleable and modifiable. It is this malleability and modifiability that denotes why it becomes most vital in our understanding to see these variations of embodied and relational processes of protection and movements of shifts, disruptions, and adaptive alterations along a nuanced continuum of phenomenological experiencing. Though Self may have been structurally organised around inescapable and unresolvable threat, the very associative and integrative capacity that was obstructed in the service of survival can begin to be restored.
Toward reconnection
From here we can begin to notice that no matter where upon the continuum we find ourselves – whether we notice our sense of Self with attenuated presence, absorption, and ordinary lapses in awareness across time-space-place, with contracted presence, detachment, intrusion, and altered continuity across Self-Other-World reality, or with fractured presence, compartmentalisation, and fragmentation across time-space-place Self-Other-World existing and experiencing – we can know that such transient and momentary Self-state shifts, recurrent and patterned Self-state disruptions, or such enduring Self-structure adaptations and alterations, throughout our lifetime remain malleable and modifiable.
Significantly, just as these protective processes so often begin within periods of dependence where the attachment relationship is the very foundation of time-space-place and Self-Other-World existing and experiencing, it is thus within relationship that Self connection, continuity, and coherence can begin to return.
New experiences of safety, stability, and predictability in therapeutic connection offer the conditions under which what was once too much to digest and metabolise might, in time, be gently approached. Where Self presence once needed to attenuate, contract, or fracture, it can begin to meet Other and World. Where contact with our sensations, perceptions, and interpretations once narrowed or fragmented, our associative and integrative capacity can slowly begin to connect once more.
Indeed, within the safety, stability, and predictability of therapeutic connection, new relational and regulatory responses can begin to repeatedly disconfirm the original embodied and relational processes of protection. Where intensifying and inescapable threat, particularly throughout development, moved momentary Self-states of discontinuity and incoherence toward enduring neurobiological adaptations and alterations within the organisational structures of Self itself, co-regulated connection and compassionate collaboration offer an emergently disconfirming milieu of care and nourishment. 
This is a connected, continuous, and coherent continuum of phenomenological experiencing where being resonantly seen, heard, understood, accepted, valued, and delighted in facilitates reconnective and restorative physiological, psychological, and relational processes of gentle time-space-place and Self-Other-World recognition, reorientation, and reorganisation.
In this way, just as a repetition of disruptions to coordination and synchronisation once moved our systems toward processes of dis-associative deafferentation, a progressive blocking of incoming sensory and affective signals from reaching fuller conscious awareness, so too can a repetition of safe, stable, and predictable relational experience begin to restore coordination and synchronisation across large-scale networks.
Slowly, the very integrative conditions that were once disrupted can begin to re-form, re-opening our innate capacity to associate and integrate horizontal and vertical modes of processing, including affective and neuroceptive sensation, relational and regulatory perception, and semantic and sense-making interpretation. Through this differentiation and linkage of our previously obstructed dis-associated and dis-integrated processes, a connected, continuous, and coherent felt sense of Self with presence can begin, sometimes for the first time, to form.
And so, we return to where we began, to those unexplainable encounters within the continuity of our embodied sense of Self that are so often hard to grasp, to ground, to bring into any bounds of seeming sense. What once felt like a warped reality, that blurring obscurity of there-not-there, here-not-here, inner-to-outer, as well as me-not-me can come to be met as embodied and relational processes of protection that adapted and altered when the inescapability of threatening circumstances continuously asked too much of our system.
Ultimately, and to reiterate the imperative nature of neurobiological malleability and modifiability, when we meet these processes with compassion, the chasm of alarmed aloneness can become a little less alone, and a little less dis-associated moment-by-moment.
For across the whole continuum, from the most ordinary lapse in presence through to the most enduring adaptation within the structure of Self, dissociation carries a protective meaning that remains deeply, recognisably human. And just as these protective processes so often began within relationship, it is within relationship that Self connection, continuity, and coherence can gently, and over time, return our most sacred sense of time-space-place and Self-Other-World existing and experiencing to us.
Welcome, my name is Chele, I am a therapist primarily specialising in Trauma – specifically as it presents as Burnout and Breakdown. As a psychotherapist & PACFA & CCAA Clinical Counsellor I work individually with beautiful humans such as yourself who feel alone, lost, confused, & overwhelmed; those of you who are longing for something different.
As such, I offer my knowledge, skills, and inherent gifts with ears that listen to hear, and a heart open to receive who you are, no matter the suffering you bring; to support you in an exploration of how your past has impacted you and the ways that shows up presently. Together we will rediscover your hope and your sense of Self; we will reconnect you to what matters reclaiming the joy and delight in life you so deserve.
I welcome you to view my services or connect with me to explore how I can assist you in your journey.
References & Resources
The following references are offered for those who wish to explore the ideas informing this work. Brief annotations are included to support orientation rather than prescribe interpretation.
Ecker, B., & Bridges, S. K. (2020). How the science of memory reconsolidation advances the effectiveness and unification of psychotherapy. Clinical Social Work Journal, 48(3), 287–300.
This article supports the article’s account of how new relational and regulatory responses within therapeutic connection can repeatedly disconfirm original protective learnings. It is especially useful for the language around emergently disconfirming experience and the synaptic conditions through which embodied and relational processes of protection may be gently updated.
Fisher, J. (2017). Healing the fragmented selves of trauma survivors: Overcoming internal self-alienation. Routledge.
This text supports the article’s framing of dissociation as a structural and protective organisation of Self under conditions of inescapable threat. It is especially useful for the language around protective patterns, the developmental emergence of fragmentation, and the relational restoration of a connected, continuous, and coherent sense of Self.
Frewen, P. A., & Lanius, R. A. (2015). Healing the traumatized self: Consciousness, neuroscience, treatment. Norton.
This text supports the article’s understanding of dissociation as a continuum of altered states of consciousness across body, time, thought, and emotion. It is especially useful for the language around contracted presence, detachment, intrusion, and the disrupted continuity of Self-Other-World experiencing within the recurrent and patterned mid-range of the spectrum.
Lanius, R. A., Frewen, P. A., Tursich, M., Jetly, R., & McKinnon, M. C. (2015). Restoring large-scale brain networks in PTSD and related disorders: A proposal for neuroscientifically-informed treatment interventions. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 6, 27313.
This article supports the article’s understanding of trauma-related dissociation as involving disrupted coordination and synchronisation across large-scale brain networks. It is especially useful for the language around the integrative conditions disrupted by dis-associative deafferentation and the therapeutic possibility of restoring large-scale network coordination through safe, stable, and predictable relational experience.
Lanius, R. A., Vermetten, E., Loewenstein, R. J., Brand, B., Schmahl, C., Bremner, J. D., & Spiegel, D. (2010). Emotion modulation in PTSD: Clinical and neurobiological evidence for a dissociative subtype. American Journal of Psychiatry, 167(6), 640–647.
This article supports the article’s understanding of dissociation as a protective alteration in affective and neurobiological responding under conditions of overwhelm. It is especially useful for the language around contracted presence, numbness, and the analgesic states that characterise patterned disruptions in Self-Other-World reality processing.
Lanius, U. F., Paulsen, S. L., & Corrigan, F. M. (Eds.). (2014). Neurobiology and treatment of traumatic dissociation: Toward an embodied self. Springer Publishing.
This text supports the article’s neurobiological grounding of dissociation as a spectrum of embodied and relational processes of protection. It is especially useful for the language around neurobiological coordination and synchronisation, dis-associative deafferentation, and the disruption of integrative conditions necessary for a felt sense of Self with presence.
Liotti, G. (2004). Trauma, dissociation, and disorganized attachment: Three strands of a single braid. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 41(4), 472–486.
This article supports the article’s understanding of dissociation as developmentally shaped within the attachment relationship, particularly when the very relationship that should offer refuge becomes inseparable from the terror itself. It is especially useful for the language around inescapable threat and the developmental emergence of Self-states organised around contradictory relational realities.
Meares, R. (2012). A dissociation model of borderline personality disorder. Norton.
This text supports the article’s understanding of disrupted continuity of Self and the relational restoration of inner coherence through therapeutic conversation. It is especially useful for the language around connection, continuity, and coherence, and the conversational and co-regulatory conditions through which Self with presence is gently reorganised.
Nijenhuis, E. R. S., & van der Hart, O. (2011). Dissociation in trauma: A new definition and comparison with previous formulations. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 12(4), 416–445.
This article supports the article’s articulation of dissociation as an integrative failure across ordinarily associated elements of physiological, psychological, and relational experiencing. It is especially useful for the language distinguishing structural dissociation from related dissociative phenomena along the broader continuum.
Ogden, P., Minton, K., & Pain, C. (2006). Trauma and the body: A sensorimotor approach to psychotherapy. Norton.
This text supports the article’s attention to dissociation as an embodied process of protection that disrupts the coordination between sensation, affect, action, and meaning. It is especially useful for the language around affective and neuroceptive sensation, sensorimotor feedback, and the inherent action impulses that may be obstructed in the service of survival.
Panksepp, J., & Biven, L. (2012). The archaeology of mind: Neuroevolutionary origins of human emotions. Norton.
This text supports the article’s understanding of the developmental and evolutionary roots of the primary affective systems, particularly FEAR, PANIC/GRIEF, and CARE, and their role in shaping protective adaptations. It is especially useful for the language around innate affect propensities and the affective substrate underlying embodied and relational processes of protection.
Pietkiewicz, I. J., Bańbura-Nowak, A., Tomalski, R., & Boon, S. (2021). Revisiting false-positive and imitated dissociative identity disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 637929.
This article supports the article’s observation that dissociation has been socioculturally simplified in ways that collapse the living meaning of the continuum of dissociative experiencing. It is especially useful for the language around the need for a compassionate delineation of dissociation that preserves its inherent spectrum of protective meaning.
Schore, A. N. (2012). The science of the art of psychotherapy. Norton.
This text supports the article’s understanding of dissociation as a developmental and relational adaptation shaped by ruptures within the attachment relationship. It is especially useful for the language around right-brain to right-brain relational processes, the affective substrate of Self, and the co-regulatory conditions through which dissociative adaptations may be relationally repaired.
Siegel, D. J. (2012). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
This text supports the article’s understanding of the innate capacity to associate and integrate horizontal and vertical modes of processing, and of integration as the linkage of differentiated elements across body, brain, and relationship. It is especially useful for the language around connection, continuity, and coherence, and the relational conditions through which a felt sense of Self with presence forms.
