Part 2. Dissociation and Multiplicity What Is Dissociation?
Dissociation means the separation of things that were, or usually are, together (e.g., associated). In their minds, people usually remember a whole event, including sights, sounds, feelings, and meaning. When dissociation occurs, the remembered event may be devoid of meaning or feelings, which are separated and stored in another part of the mind. In other words, the different parts of the memory are recalled separately, not as a congruent whole. Strictly speaking, dissociation is a mental process, a way of recording and storing information. It is one of the mind’s ways of operating. Some information may be dissociated, while other information is stored as a whole. Sometimes you hear “So-and-so is dissociated.” This is shorthand for saying that their mind uses dissociation. A person is always a whole person regardless of how their mind works. Nobody stores their feet in one place, their nose in another, and their mind someplace else, even though some days it may feel that way.
