Does anyone know the difference between regression and dissociation?
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Oh god, I was dissociating when I posted that!!! LOL!!! I meant the difference between repression and dissociation!!!
Hi Liese,
He hee, funny cos I could answer the first question but not the second!!!
starfish
He hee, funny cos I could answer the first question but not the second!!!
starfish
my two cents.
repression is consciously putting something ( a memory/experience/feeling) back into a somewhat unconscious state. not that you say, hey, memory, go away. but you just push it away and don't 'deal' with it. it IS stored in there, but not too accessible.
regression is dealing with emotions in a way that is from an earlier age. not consciuosly, but, that is where one goes when under stress.
dissociation MAY be a way one regresses. i don't see how it is linked to repression, but there may be a link. it is usually, with ca, csa, something 'learned' at a young age. like in complex ptsd. and it is that mental dissappearing act. one is there, but not. usually learned through trauma, and brought on by triggers of anxiety.
jill
repression is consciously putting something ( a memory/experience/feeling) back into a somewhat unconscious state. not that you say, hey, memory, go away. but you just push it away and don't 'deal' with it. it IS stored in there, but not too accessible.
regression is dealing with emotions in a way that is from an earlier age. not consciuosly, but, that is where one goes when under stress.
dissociation MAY be a way one regresses. i don't see how it is linked to repression, but there may be a link. it is usually, with ca, csa, something 'learned' at a young age. like in complex ptsd. and it is that mental dissappearing act. one is there, but not. usually learned through trauma, and brought on by triggers of anxiety.
jill
So funny, starfishy, go ahead and take a stab at the first one anyway.
jill, i was reading this article about phases of trauma treatment. and it talked about the part of us that is called "a normal personality" .. that's the part that carries out daily life, etc., and lives in the present. then it talked about with trauma how an "emotional personality" kind of splits off and is dissociated from the normal personalities and is stuck in the past at the time of the trauma. and depending upon how many traumas one has experienced, a person could have that many emotional personalities. They were calling it dissociation because the parts are unaware of one another and may even dislike each other. For instance, if a person likes to think of themselves as being independent but has a needy side that the independent personality detests, something like that. and that the goal of therapy is to get the normal personality to recognize the emotional personalities and work together. and hopefully eventually heal. It sounded an awful like like repression to me. so I'm wondering what the difference might be. I'm not sure if I'm even understanding the article right but that was my reading of it.
jill, i was reading this article about phases of trauma treatment. and it talked about the part of us that is called "a normal personality" .. that's the part that carries out daily life, etc., and lives in the present. then it talked about with trauma how an "emotional personality" kind of splits off and is dissociated from the normal personalities and is stuck in the past at the time of the trauma. and depending upon how many traumas one has experienced, a person could have that many emotional personalities. They were calling it dissociation because the parts are unaware of one another and may even dislike each other. For instance, if a person likes to think of themselves as being independent but has a needy side that the independent personality detests, something like that. and that the goal of therapy is to get the normal personality to recognize the emotional personalities and work together. and hopefully eventually heal. It sounded an awful like like repression to me. so I'm wondering what the difference might be. I'm not sure if I'm even understanding the article right but that was my reading of it.
Hey Liese,
Repression is actually an unconscious action that we do, similar to dissociation (suppression is conscious). To me, the difference between the two is the fragmentation that characterizes dissociation, like several personalities (and not just for those with DID as there can be varying levels of personality splits). The memory is walled off and fragmented to another part of your mind, while repression is (to me, I've never done any of my own research on this stuff) where you unconsciously put a memory in the back of your mind where it can't be retrieved. Repression doesn't necessarily entail personality splits, while (structural) dissociation almost always does - at least in some form or another.
A long time ago I read something about how repressed memories aren't easily retrieved because they are so far beyond conscious awareness, in contrast to dissociated memories which are there, but in a different *part* of our awareness. I may or may not be getting that mixed up. I also saw something a while ago that questioned whether there actually were repressed memories or if it's all just dissociated.
Anyway, I hope that answers your question, and I hope it's not completely wrong.
Take care,
Kashley
quote:They were calling it dissociation because the parts are unaware of one another and may even dislike each other. For instance, if a person likes to think of themselves as being independent but has a needy side that the independent personality detests, something like that. and that the goal of therapy is to get the normal personality to recognize the emotional personalities and work together.
Repression is actually an unconscious action that we do, similar to dissociation (suppression is conscious). To me, the difference between the two is the fragmentation that characterizes dissociation, like several personalities (and not just for those with DID as there can be varying levels of personality splits). The memory is walled off and fragmented to another part of your mind, while repression is (to me, I've never done any of my own research on this stuff) where you unconsciously put a memory in the back of your mind where it can't be retrieved. Repression doesn't necessarily entail personality splits, while (structural) dissociation almost always does - at least in some form or another.
A long time ago I read something about how repressed memories aren't easily retrieved because they are so far beyond conscious awareness, in contrast to dissociated memories which are there, but in a different *part* of our awareness. I may or may not be getting that mixed up. I also saw something a while ago that questioned whether there actually were repressed memories or if it's all just dissociated.
Anyway, I hope that answers your question, and I hope it's not completely wrong.
Take care,
Kashley
The article is called Phase-Oriented Treatment of Structural Dossication in Complex Traumatiztion: Overcoming Trauma-Related Phobias, by Kathy Steele, Onno van der Hart, and Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis.
Really interesting article. Hope it helps.
Really interesting article. Hope it helps.
Here is a similar article by the same author. My T bases her methods on this as well.
http://www.trauma-pages.com/a/nijenhuis-2004.php
http://www.trauma-pages.com/a/nijenhuis-2004.php