# Good read...May not be stress related just triggered



## bark (Nov 7, 2005)

DISSOCIATION & THE FRAGMENTATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Functional dissociations are perhaps a normal aspect of psychic existence, as different regions of the brain and mind subserve wholly different capabilities and essentially speak different languages. Moreover, psychic upheavals are not uncommon, such that the neocortically equipped rational and logical aspects of mind may be completely overwhelmed by limbic and emotional concerns, including, for example, extreme fear or sexual jealousy. Under emotionally traumatizing conditions, however, the brain and the mind may be injured and may literally fracture and break apart, giving rise to a host of disconnections syndromes and associated dissociative phenomenon.

Dissociative experience, according to DSM-IV (1994, p. 477), is due to "a disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perceptions of the environment." Dissociative phenomenon are typically associated with severe emotional trauma (Janet, 1927) such as rape, physical assault, or catastrophe (Courtois, 1995; Joseph, 1998b, 1999d; Terr, 1994; van der Kolk & Fisler 1995), as well as repeated instances of severe and profound childhood sexual abuse, sometimes involving sexual torture. Typically, dissociative experiences may include dreamy states, fragmentation of consciousness, paralytic fear, and traumatic amnesia, as well as sensations or hallucinations of floating beside or above the body.

Dissociative experiences have also been associated with hypnosis (Hilgard, 1977/1986; Janet, 1927; Kihlstrom, 1985), and has been reported among neurosurgery and epilepsy patients (Daly, 1958; Penfield & Perot 1963; Williams, 1956), and those who have undergone corpus callosotomy or suffered neurological injury (Bogen, 1993; Geschwind, 1965; Joseph, 1988a,b; Sperry, 1982), Under these conditions patients may also experience amnesia, the splitting of consciousness, as well as out-of-body sensations and body image distortions such as the "alien hand" and loss of memory for the left half of the body.

Emotional trauma can induce neurological injury (Joseph, 1998b, 1999b,d, Lupien & McEwen, 1997, Sapolsky, 1996) and create functional disconnections syndromes and a splitting of consciousness. Hence, under both emotional and neurologically traumatic conditions, the ego and thus consciousness may fracture and split apart, such that a fragmentary (and traumatized) aspect of the ego and the brain (including associated ideas, perceptions, feelings, and memories) may come to be dissociated from the dominant stream of conscious activity (Janet, 1927; Joseph, 1998b, 1999b,d). According to Janet (1927), in response to overwhelming emotional stress, and because the ego and consciousness may be "fractured," the abiltity to control or bind together all aspects of the psyche and the mind is lost. In consequence, the traumatized, injured, and broken off aspects of the mind may also act independently as if under the control of a separate personality.

Janet (1927) has argued that these dissociated elements of the ego, under some conditions, can essentially take on a life of their own and may in fact independently develop and grow (see also Jung, 1964; regarding complexes). Nevertheless, because it has been dissociated and thus disconnected from this broken off aspect of the psyche, the dominant and verbal aspect of the personality and consciousness may be unaware that the broken off segment is acting independently. Identical disturbances have been documented following neurological injury including corpus callosotomy (Joseph, 1988a,







.

It is noteworthy that although Freud (1915; Breuer & Freud 1893) also repeatedly documented cases of dissociation, in which various aspects of the psyche could come to be split off from consciousness, he also believed that under traumatic conditions that it was the emotion or impulse associated with an idea (or memory) that came to be disconnected and dissociated; i.e. repressed. Thus the emotion or impulse and the associated memory disapear into the unconscious. According to Freud (1915), through this expulsion from consciousness, painful ideas, memories, impulses and feelings could come to be repressed and dissociated from the ego. Nevertheless, this dissociation is not always complete for repressed material and related ideas can seek entry or seep into consciousness in the form of fragmented images and "reminiscences" (Breuer & Freud, 1893) and thus achieve a partial conscious realization. Similar seepage has also been demonstrated with split-brain patients (Joseph, 1986b, 1988a,







.

Freud also believed that the various components of the mind were in fact naturally separated and thus fragmented; a theory which is also supported by evidence from neurology (Joseph, 1982, 1986a,b, 1988a,b, 1992b). Thus the ego was conscious as well as unconscious, and it was the unconscious realms into which rejected and dissociated impulses could be deposited. That is, the unacceptable impulse is either rejected by the conscious mind and/or it is denied entry into consciousness by the unconscious mind (via the unconscious censors) and is repressed. Freud thus downplayed the significance of dissociation and instead embraced and developed the concept of the "unconscious" and "repression" which essentially became the "cornerstone" of psychoanalysis (Freud 1900, 1915).

Although these two clinicians essentially championed major constructs that somewhat differed from that of the other (i.e. dissociation vs repression), and although Freud argued that repression may be triggered in response to unacceptable impulses, Janet (1927) and Freud (1896,1900,1905,1916,1931, 1937), were in basic agreement as to the role of emotional and psychic trauma as a primary cause of repression and dissociative states. That is, emotional trauma can create a condition where the experience and associated memories become disconnected and dissociated from the dominant stream of verbal consciousness and thus repressed. Again, however, the same exact symptoms can be produced following neurological injury, and this is because emotional trauma can injure as well as abnormally activated the brain, thereby giving rise to a dissociative amnesia, a splitting of consciousness, and a host of related disconnection symptoms including the sensation of floating outside the body.

DISCONNECTION SYNDROMES: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

The brain is organized such that four distinct, albeit overlapping mental systems, are essentially localized one on top (brainstem/limbic system) and one beside the other (right/left hemisphere). However, because the "mental systems" of the brain are hierarchically organized and lateralized, they are not always able to fully communicate as they speak different languages. Indeed, given the newly evolved ability to employ language and logic, and the fact that half of the brain is depending on language for understanding whereas older social-emotional mental systems are lateralized to the right half of the cerebru, this lateralized system of mental activity often predisposes humans to developing intra-psychic conflicts and to sometimes ignore or suppress "warning signs" and "alarm bells" when interacting with others, members of the opposite sex and business and political opponents in particular. Often the left fails to attend to or acknowledge what the right hemisphere is fully aware of, a consequence of functional disconnection secondary to functional lateralization.

Functional disconnections may be induced by conflicting emotional concerns, and under conditions of tremendous emotional stress. However, in these latter instances, the brain may in fact be damaged (Joseph, 1998b, 1999b,d, Lupien & McEwen, 1997; Sapolsky, 1996). And if the brain is damaged, then so too is the mind. As noted, conscious-awareness, including linguistic-consciousness is subject to fracture if the cerebrum is sufficiently stressed or physically injured. Under conditions of severe emotional stress, various aspects of the mind may in fact come to be extinguished and completely eclipsed. For example, victims become paralyzed with fear and there may be a complete cessation of mental activity, such that even memory is abolished. Moreover, associated structures, such as the hippocampus and amygdala may be injured thereby giving rise to long term disturbances of emotion and memory as well as the development of alternative personalities.

The brain and the mind can also become fractured and disconnected from yet other regions of the brain and mind due to head injury, stroke, tumor, or epilepsy. In some cases, the neocortex may be disconnected from limbic sources of input, the right hemisphere may be disconnected from the left hemisphere and the language dependent mind, and in some cases the language axis itself may be fractured such that Broca's area may be unable to communicate with Wernicke's area.

For example, if Broca's area is disconnected from Wernicke's area and the IPL due to a lesion of the arcuate fasciculus, the patient will suffer an extreme "tip of the tongue" word finding difficulty, and might completely lose the ability to produce speech altogether, though they still "know" what they wish to say; referred to as conduction aphasia, or in the less extreme, anomia (Goodglass & Kaplan 1999). However, in some instances the linguistic aspects of consciousness may remain intact, but become disconnected and thus dissociated from a non-verbal region of the mind (Bogen, 1993; Critchley, 1964; Freud, 1891; Geschwind, 1965; Joseph, 1986a,b, 1988a,b; Sperry, 1966, 1982). If that occurs, the disconnected aspect of non-verbal awareness may act independently of that portion of the mind associated with language and verbal thought.


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