Dissociative disorders: a personal 'work in progress'.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To identify the core issues contained within the dissociative disorders literature, and synthesize them into a non-polarized, inclusive perspective that emphasizes logic, core psychological principles and mutual professional respect. CONCLUSIONS: A large percentage of all psychiatric patients are traumatized in clinically significant manners. Dissociation, in all its variants, represents a psychological mechanism for the victim of trauma to defend him/herself from being overwhelmed. Debates regarding the validity of dissociative disorders need to be viewed in the context of society's counter-transference to trauma, in the context of health professionals feeling vulnerable to controversy, and in terms of their own experience of trauma.