Oftentimes when one thinks of Dissociative Identity Disorder, it is seen as something that happens to a person when they experience so much trauma that they essentially shatter into different personalities with no awareness of each other, or alternatively, one may think of irritating attention whores with absurd claims. Dissociative Identity Disorder is a highly controversial diagnosis because of many factors, including people thinking that their emotions and feelings are entirely different personalities and explaining this to a therapist who can sometimes encourage the individual to name their “personalities” and “develop them” and make them feel worse and more stuck in their head. Additionally, there is controversy because everyone acts differently with different people, this is true, but is missing the mark with D.I.D.
There are people who intentionally try to induce different alters (altered states of consciousness) including the tulpamancy, plural, and endogenic communities who also add to the controversy. So what’s my point with all of this, why am I making a thread on what seems to be social nonsense? Sure, we could discuss what makes people form these bizarre subcultures, but I think dissociation is poorly understood in general and can partially explain things like certain forms of transgenderism, fetishism, anhedonia, alexithymia, and more.
What is Structural Dissociation?
Structural Dissociation comes from a book known as The Haunted Self and is very detailed. The basis of structural dissociation is that we have various ‘action systems’ that stick together and create a coherent sense of self as we learn and grow, but developmental trauma creates conflict and walls between these action systems. Structural Dissociation is most often seen in young children who see their caregivers as someone they need care and resources from yet are afraid of (disorganized attachment). Hence, as they grow and face more fear from their caregivers, they split this fear into a different self-state called an emotional part (EP) while they survive with their day to day life as a self-state called an apparently normal part (ANP). The basis of this is to survive and get through their life enough where someone can grow and develop as the ANP action system without constantly being tormented by their feelings of terror/humiliation/other horrible feelings in an environment where they cannot do much about it. This is eventually maladaptive because the EP can experience triggers that remind the person of the past, a very real example of this is a PTSD flashback. With trauma specialization, these parts can be reconciled and the person can live a full life without feeling like something is missing. I have found some online posts that may be of relevance: here, and here, but there are some other books that may be relevant such as: Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond and Coping with Trauma-Related Dissociation: Skills Training for Patients and Therapists.
What is the BASK Model?
If you’re a visual thinker, you might like this one more. BASK stands for Behavior, Affect, Sensation, and Knowledge. In people who are more integrated, all of these are remembered together, but in people who are more dissociated, these things can be fragmented and separated from each other. For example, someone may remember being beaten as a kid but have no feelings towards it (emotional amnesia is another term for this) (knowledge, in this model) Alternatively, they may feel nauseated and terrified at depictions of child abuse but not remember why (affect and sensation).
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I would like to add more to this thread later, but I believe many people who wade through life feeling empty are dissociated in some regard. What do you guys think of this so far?