I've got two unrelated questions about dissociation theories, so I shall post two threads, and hope to keep them separate.
I've been reading about the Sociocognitive Model ( SM ), which argues that the origins of dissociation, particularly DID, are other than trauma. We are familiar with the Trauma Model of dissociation (TM ), which, much summarized, says that traumatic events were so severe that in order to cope with them we had to separate them into another part of us, and that separation then continues after the trauma with effects in our lives that vary along a continuum from spaciness to full scale Dissociative Identity Disorder.
The SM suggests that it comes from a number of possible causes, all influenced by social expectation. It argues that people looking for an explanation of their emotional turmoil and mood swings are disposed to accept this explanation when it is offered. It is more likely to be offered now than it used to be, as both popular and therapeutic culture have brought the idea of "alters" to the fore. They argue that symptoms vary across cultures, based on local expectations of how alters would manifest.
A key argument is that accepted techniques for treatment encourage patients to look for, and hence find alters, which are then made more concrete by the therapist, and that this is even more likely in fantasy prone individuals. To me, one of the most telling comments is that there are few conditions whose principal psychopathological feature is typically not observable before treatment. They link this to the observation made by clinicians who support the TM, that highly dissociative patients have often been in unsuccessful treatment for several years before a dissociative diagnosis.
There is quite a lot more theory, which I'll maybe post below.
Two of the sources I've read are http://www.haraldmerckelbach.nl/artikelen_engels/2012/Dissociation And Dissociative Disorders.pdf and
Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology, Second Edition, chapter 5 which you can read on Google books
I've been reading about the Sociocognitive Model ( SM ), which argues that the origins of dissociation, particularly DID, are other than trauma. We are familiar with the Trauma Model of dissociation (TM ), which, much summarized, says that traumatic events were so severe that in order to cope with them we had to separate them into another part of us, and that separation then continues after the trauma with effects in our lives that vary along a continuum from spaciness to full scale Dissociative Identity Disorder.
The SM suggests that it comes from a number of possible causes, all influenced by social expectation. It argues that people looking for an explanation of their emotional turmoil and mood swings are disposed to accept this explanation when it is offered. It is more likely to be offered now than it used to be, as both popular and therapeutic culture have brought the idea of "alters" to the fore. They argue that symptoms vary across cultures, based on local expectations of how alters would manifest.
A key argument is that accepted techniques for treatment encourage patients to look for, and hence find alters, which are then made more concrete by the therapist, and that this is even more likely in fantasy prone individuals. To me, one of the most telling comments is that there are few conditions whose principal psychopathological feature is typically not observable before treatment. They link this to the observation made by clinicians who support the TM, that highly dissociative patients have often been in unsuccessful treatment for several years before a dissociative diagnosis.
There is quite a lot more theory, which I'll maybe post below.
Two of the sources I've read are http://www.haraldmerckelbach.nl/artikelen_engels/2012/Dissociation And Dissociative Disorders.pdf and
Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology, Second Edition, chapter 5 which you can read on Google books
