Hi Stormy and Co,
I found this because I'm going through the dame thing......I can't understand all of it but you get the jist.:)
Structural dissociation. Structural dissociation of the personality may occur in trauma, with the pre-traumatic personality fragmenting into what Myers (1940) referred to as an "apparently normal" and an "emotional" personality. Although we will now describe a theory of structural dissociation with separately functioning "personalities," we recognize the metaphoric nature of this description. Yet, dissociated mental and somatic contents, however rudimentary, do not exist in a vacuum, but are always a part of "some personality" (Mitchell, 1922, p. 113). We therefore prefer the term "personality," despite its history of being misunderstood and reified in DID. Thus the terms "apparently normal" and "emotional" personalities not only refer to the classic understanding of DID alters, but also to the dissociation in PTSD characterized by alternation between the numb, avoidant, but more or less functional personality ("apparently normal"), and the personality that relives the trauma ("emotional"). The difference is primarily the fact that in DID there is fragmentation of the apparently normal personality in addition to the emotional personality, and in the degree of autonomy and elaboration present.
Structural dissociation is not indiscriminate, but follows along the lines of the innate emotional systems, as described above (Panksepp, 1998). The "emotional personality" (EP) is directed by the defensive emotional (sub)systems in particular, and is characterized by fixation in the trauma, hypermnesia, somatosensory experiences of the trauma, retraction of the field of consciousness to the trauma and related stimuli, and disorientation to the present time.
The "apparently normal" personality (ANP) is directed by emotional systems related to daily life, including attachment. The primary function of the ANP is to adequately function in daily life, which would not be possible if unintegrated trauma was intruding. Thus, the ANP is fixated in avoidance of the trauma, detachment, some degree of amnesia or other lack of realization, retraction of the field of consciousness to issues of daily life that excludes trauma and related stimuli, and emotional and physical numbing. The dissociation of a single EP and a single ANP is termed primary structural dissociation, and is found in acute stress disorder and simple PTSD. If trauma is prolonged and severe, further fragmentation occurs along defensive subsystems, resulting in two or more EPs and a single ANP. This so-called secondary structural dissociation is found in complex PTSD, trauma-related borderline personality disorder and dissociative disorder not otherwise specified. Finally, tertiary structural dissociation occurs only in DID, and includes not only fragmentation of EPs, but also fragmentation of the ANP. Dissociation of the ANP results from the burden of avoiding trauma and attempts to manage daily life, which become increasingly overwhelming due to intrusion of trauma and low integrative capacity. Patients with DID can, of course, also fulfill diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder and Complex PTSD.
It is important to note that ANPs and EPs represent a wide range of dissociated contents, ranging from rudimentary and single states (e.g., a feeling or behavior) to much more elaborated and autonomous set of states (e.g., clearly distinguished aspects of DDNOS and DID). They occur along all three levels of structural dissociation, each more or less directed by a particular emotional system or set of systems, and which are dissociated from each other. The more rudimentary personalities, particularly EPs, are sometimes called "ego states." However, on a diagnostic level, if an ANP was also dissociated into rudimentary "ego states" that could take executive control, such a presentation would still constitute tertiary structural dissociation, i.e., DID.
Hopefully it might :help:!! X
