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Foundational Teaching

Dissociation is coping mechanism, a way to manage life or to survive. Infants and little children have not learned many coping strategies but do have the God-given ability to dissociate when terrible things happen to them. Once the child learns this way to cope with life’s troubles, they will usually continue to use it even in non-traumatic situations. This works well for the child but proves to be a problem in adulthood.

In dissociation, the mind separates one or more of its functions away from its normal stream of consciousness. Dissociation is commonly considered to be a problem or alteration in identity, consciousness, memory, and/ or perception [the way we see something] of the environment.

A normally functioning person is able to integrate these aspects of function. In dissociation, there is a separation or compartmentalization of these functions. It is possible for instance, for a dissociative person to have a separate compartment for certain knowledge, will or the senses, such as taste, sight, smell, hearing, touch, or even different emotions or spirit. This is accomplished by building walls between the separated parts so that a component of the person can be unaffected by a certain experience.

Another way to see it is as a broken vase. It is just one object but in many different pieces and shapes. Another is the “Humpty Dumpty” broken image. The difference here is that Our King Jesus is able to put Humpty Dumpty together again. A classic example is a puzzle. In these examples, there are different parts with different characteristics but each is part of the same whole. Be aware that many of the parts of a dissociated person are children. We have an anointed DVD entitled, Why Doesn’t anyone Understand Us?, to demonstrate this. It has greatly ministered to many. We have been told that it helped with understanding this complex topic more than all the other information.

This separation usually happens following repeated trauma before the age of six. It may result from prenatal (womb life) trauma such as an attempted abortion, from birth trauma, or from severe accidents. Perpetrated acts of violence by family members or evil intentioned groups are often achieved through calculated and highly technical torture and mind control which result in dissociation. The family is not always the source of the trauma.

View dissociation as a continuum. On one end is “normal” (most common), and then there are degrees of increasing separations from self. On the other end we might even find the inability to know at times what a part of one’s self is doing. This is known as an amnesic state or lack of co-consciousness. The greatest degree of separation is called Dissociative Identity Disorder [DID]. It used to be called Multiple Personality until the American Psychiatric Association changed it in 1994. A highly complex DID mind could be separated even into thousands of parts. Some of these parts may only be fragments with very limited function. In future articles we will address examples of situations which could produce these.

A professional mental health diagnosis for DID would require:

  1. Two or more personality states or distinct identities who think, feel and choose from a different world view. As a result, each identity perceives their environment, others and themselves differently.
  2. Two or more distinct personalities must take control of a person’s behavior at different times.
  3. There is more memory loss than in non-dissociative persons which cannot be accounted for by a disease or effects of alcohol or other drugs.
  4. The extreme experiences are not due to psychosis [being out of touch with reality].

Persons with DID are not crazy. Many of my clients are extraordinary artists, poets, musicians, thinkers, strategists, and theologians, functioning in moderately stressful life situations.

They need a therapist or prayer counselor who is experienced in dissociative disorders. They may have been misdiagnosed as schizophrenic, borderline or bi-polar. They may have been institutionalized many times and given many medications which did not seem very helpful. This is because DID is not a bio-chemical imbalance of the brain. This condition is trauma based. It is possible, however, for a person with DID to also have a chemical imbalance psychiatric condition as well.

When the trauma is resolved there is opportunity for resolution for the need of the separation and a coming together, merging, fusion or integration is possible. For example, if there were four parts before one part’s trauma is resolved, after the integration, instead of four different opinions about what to order at the restaurant, there are only three now! That may sound funny but decision making with a dissociated mind can be exhausting.

There are many different opinions about how common this condition is. They range from 10% of the general population to 50% of the psychiatric hospital inpatients. Until recently, this condition was thought to be extremely rare. Many people have been misdiagnosed. There are highly respected psychiatrists today who will tell you the condition does not exist. I personally question their intentions. Thousands of people are seeking help around the world for this condition. Thankfully, with the appropriate interventions, the help from people who understand the condition and know what to do, the cure rate is 80-90%.

We have produced a DVD to serve as an introduction to DID. It is a springboard for discussion in large or small groups and helpful for family, friends and support people of dissociative persons. It is comforting for the one suffering from the condition as well.

I hope this article has sufficiently introduced you to dissociation or helped you to better understand this complex condition. A.C.A.C.I.A. looks forward to providing continued information for your benefit.