From the Sidran Foundation
http://www.sidran.org/didbr.html
Dissociation is a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. During the period of time when a person is dissociating, certain information is not associated with other information as it normally would be. For example, during a traumatic experience, a person may dissociate the memory of the place and circumstances of the trauma from his ongoing memory, resulting in a temporary mental escape from the fear and pain of the trauma and, in some cases, a memory gap surrounding the experience. Because this process can produce changes in memory, people who frequently dissociate often find their senses of personal history and identity are affected.
Most clinicians believe that dissociation exists on a continuum of severity. This continuum reflects a wide range of experiences and/or symptoms. At one end are mild dissociative experiences common to most people, such as daydreaming, highway hypnosis, or "getting lost" in a book or movie, all of which involve "losing touch" with conscious awareness of one's immediate surroundings. At the other extreme is complex, chronic dissociation, such as in cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder (MPD) and other Dissociative Disorders, which may result in serious impairment or inability to function. Some people with DID(MPD)/DD can hold highly responsible jobs, contributing to society in a variety of professions, the arts, and public service. To co-workers, neighbors, and others with whom they interact daily, they apparently function normally.
Normal dissociative experiences include "highway hypnosis" (not needing to think when you drive yourself home) and "daydreaming". Most people have heard stories of car accidents where the person did not recall the few moments before during or after the accident even when there has been no head injury. These kinds of experiences are normal and in fact healthy. Daydreaming for example gives us an opportunity to think about more important things than the talk being given in the KH. Anyone here relate to that one?
During trauma a person protects themselves by going deeper into the dissociation. The greater and more frequent the trauma the more ingrained the phenomenon is. When my father was abusing me I would think of playing outside with the kids that I could hear outside the window. Some kids dossociate and see themselves looking down on the trauma as if they are on the ceiling. In very severe cases of abuse the child splits from the self. One child is on the bed but the mind-self is elsewhere. If there is a lot of pain for example one part will hold the memory of the pain. Another part of the self might remember the details of what happened. And a third part might only remember being outside playing with other kids. This is one way Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder-DID/MPD) can start.
We can safely say based on the research that dissociation is a continuum. At one end is the normal experiences of daydreaming and highway hypnosis. On the other end is DID/MPD. And there is a range of dissociative experiences in the middle.
