TRAUMA AND DISSOCIATION
TRAUMA AND DISSOCIATION

Summary/Abstract: This article regards trauma mainly from the perspective of the dissociative phenomena that occurs during and after the traumatization process. Trauma often leads to extreme states of mind that one cannot understand, work through or integrate without psychological and psychotherapeutical tools. Dissociation plays an essential role in the psychic development of the traumatized person. Dissociative phenomena occur not only in the traumatic context: they can continue transforming the personality during the later stages of life, creating even more complex and damaging psychological structures, as we can see in post-traumatic stress disorder, dissociative disorders, borderline personality disorder and so on. An “internal care system” can develop, so that the retraumatization never takes place again. But the costs are very high, since the affected person is no longer able to feel himself/herself truly alive, possessing a coherent sense of self and getting in contact with both inner experience and the external world.

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