Dissociation is a psychological state or condition in which certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, or memories are separated from the rest of the psyche.
The French psychiatrist Pierre Janet (1859-1947) coined the term in his book L'Automatisme psychologique; he emphasized its role as a defensive maneuver in response to psychological trauma. While he considered dissociation an initially effective defense mechanism that withdraws the individual psychologically from the impact of overwhelming traumatic events, an habitual tendency to dissociate would, however, promote psychopathology.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders considers symptoms such as depersonalization, derealization, and psychogenic amnesia as core features of dissociation. However, in the normal population mild dissociative experiences are highly prevalent, with 80% to 90% of the respondents indicating that they experience dissociative experiences at least some of the time.
In chemistry, dissociation describes the separation of ions that occurs when a strong electrolyte goes into solution.
Dissociation is a psychological state or condition in which certain thoughts, emotions, sensations, or memories are separated from the rest of the psyche.
Dissociation most often makes the news with regards to soldiers' responses to wartime stress, rape victims with amnesia for details, and in occasional criminal trials where the question is if a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) can be responsible for their actions.
Dissociation has a storied role in murder trials, or at least in movies about murder, where it is occasionally given as a reason for a not guilty by reason of insanity verdict.
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