This book is based on a symposium that was inspired by the late Donald O. Hebb who, in his latter years while an Honorary Professor in the Department of Psychology at Dalhousie University, became very interested in the phenomenon of multiple personality and other dissociative states. Hebb was troubled by the lack of understanding of dissociative behavior and, through his discussions with basic science and clinical colleagues in psychology and psychiatry, he became convinced that the subject would be a figurative gold mine for psychological theory and experimentation. The purpose of the symposium was to bring together clinical and research scientists with an interest and expertise in dissociative phenomena such as multiple personality disorder, hysteria and hypnosis. This group would exchange ideas and findings, discuss theory, and lay the groundwork for an interdisciplinary research program into dissociative phenomena generally, and more specifically into multiple personality disorder and its principal precipitating factor -- physical and sexual abuse in children.

This book uses case history methodology to illustrate the relationship between theory and practice of the study of Dissociation Identity Disorder (DID). Challenging conventional wisdom on all sides, the book traces the clinical and social history of dissociation in a provocative examination of this widely debated phenomenon. It reviews the current state of DID-related controversy so that readers may draw their own conclusions and examines the evolution of hypnosis and the ways it has been used and misused in the treatment of cases with DID. The book is rigorously illustrated with two centuries’ worth of famous cases.

This updated edition of Hypnosis, Dissociation, and Absorption: Theories, Assessment, and Treatment presents the psychological theories and applications of how to use hypnosis with clients who display dissociation, absorption, fantasy proneness, and imaginative capabilities. This second edition adds information on the history of Division 30 (The Society of Psychological Hypnosis of the American Psychological Association). In addition, this new edition presents sociophenomenological, regression, relaxation, and other contemporary theories of hypnosis. This text discusses the clinical implications of applying hypnosis to several overlapping psychological disorders, such as dissociative identity disorder, borderline personality disorder, somatoform disorder, acute stress disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Applications of eye-movement techniques and hypnosis for children are included within this new edition. A new section on multicultural applications of hypnosis is presented with applications of hypnosis for African American and Latino patients. In addition, the uses of hypnosis for pain control, anxiety and stress, ego strengthening, unipolar depression, smoking cessation, weight loss, and rehabilitation are described. This text provides treatment transcripts including, but not limited to, the following theoretical approaches: cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, Adlerian, and Ericksonian. This unique and comprehensive book will be of interest to students and professionals in the counseling and psychology fields.

This second edition of the award-winning original text brings together in one volume the current thinking and conceptualizations on dissociation and the dissociative disorders. Comprised of ten parts, starting with historical and conceptual issues, and ending with considerations for the present and future, internationally renowned authors in the trauma and dissociation fields explore different facets of dissociation in pathological and non-clinical guises. This book is designed to be the most comprehensive reference book in the dissociation field and aims to provide a scholarly foundation for understanding dissociation, dissociative disorders, current issues and perspectives within the field, theoretical formulations, and empirical findings. Chapters have been thoroughly updated to include recent developments in the field, including: the complex nature of conceptualization, etiology, and neurobiology; the various manifestations of dissociation in clinical and non-clinical forms; and different perspectives on how dissociation should be understood. This book is essential for clinicians, researchers, theoreticians, students of clinical psychology psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and those with an interest or curiosity in dissociation in the various ways it can be conceived and studied.

Drawing on the pioneering work of Janet, Freud, Sullivan, and Fairbairn and making extensive use of recent literature, Elizabeth Howell develops a comprehensive model of the dissociative mind. Dissociation, for her, suffuses everyday life; it is a relationally structured survival strategy that arises out of the mind’s need to allow interaction with frightening but still urgently needed others. For therapists dissociated self-states are among the everyday fare of clinical work and gain expression in dreams, projective identifications, and enactments. Pathological dissociation, on the other hand, results when the psyche is overwhelmed by trauma and signals the collapse of relationality and an addictive clinging to dissociative solutions. Howell examines the relationship of segregated models of attachment, disorganized attachment, mentalization, and defensive exclusion to dissociative processes in general and to particular kinds of dissociative solutions. Enactments are reframed as unconscious procedural ways of being with others that often result in segregated systems of attachment. Clinical phenomena associated with splitting are assigned to a model of “attachment-based dissociation” in which alternating dissociated self-states develop along an axis of relational trauma. Later chapters of the book examine dissociation in relation to pathological narcissism; the creation and reproduction of gender; and psychopathy. Elegant in conception, thoughtful in tone, broad and deep in clinical applications, Howell takes the reader from neurophysiology to attachment theory to the clinical remediation of trauma states to the reality of evil. It provides a masterful overview of a literature that extends forward to the writings of Bromberg, Stern, Ryle, and others. The capstone of contemporary understandings of dissociation in relation to development and psychopathology, The Dissociative Mind will be an adventure and an education for its many clinical readers.

Within the last decade there has been a tremendous explosion in the clinical, theoretical, and empirical literature related to the study of dissociation. Not since the work done at the tum of the century by Pierre Janet, Morton Prince, William James, and others have the psychological and medical communities shown this great an interest in describing and understanding dissociative phenomena. This volume is the result of this significant expansion. Presently, interest in the scientific and clinical progress in the field of dissociation is indicated by the following: 1. The explosion of conferences, workshops, and seminars devoted to disso ciative disorders treatment and research. 2. The emergence of NIMH-supported investigations that focus on dissociation. 3. The burgeoning literature on dissociation. According to a 1992 biblio graphic analysis of the field by Goettman et al. (1992), 72% of all writings on the topic have appeared in the past decade, with about 1000 published papers scattered across diverse disciplines and journals. 4. Current interest in dissociation as reflected in the appearance of major articles and special issues in respected psychology and psychiatry journals. 5. The initiation of a journal entitled Dissociation (Richard Kluft, MD, Editor) devoted to the area.

The Dissociative Mind in Psychoanalysis: Understanding and Working With Trauma is an invaluable and cutting edge resource providing the current theory, practice, and research on trauma and dissociation within psychoanalysis. Elizabeth Howell and Sheldon Itzkowitz bring together experts in the field of dissociation and psychoanalysis, providing a comprehensive and forward-looking overview of the current thinking on trauma and dissociation. The volume contains articles on the history of concepts of trauma and dissociation, the linkage of complex trauma and dissociative problems in living, different modalities of treatment and theoretical approaches based on a new understanding of this linkage, as well as reviews of important new research. Overarching all of these is a clear explanation of how pathological dissociation is caused by trauma, and how this affects psychological organization -- concepts which have often been largely misunderstood. The Dissociative Mind in Psychoanalysis will be essential reading for psychoanalysts, psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists, trauma therapists, and students.