Author Archives: understandingdissociation
2012 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: 4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 20,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this … Continue reading
Which Posts Were Read Most Often During 2011?
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 15,000 times in 2011. If it were a … Continue reading
Why Is Peritraumatic Dissociation Important?
As they say in The Music Man, “You can talk all you want…but you gotta know the territory.” To really understand what peritraumatic dissociation is all about, you gotta know the territory — namely, peritraumatic dissociation’s historical context and its … Continue reading
OK, What Is Peritraumatic Dissociation — Really?
Some insist that peritraumatic dissociation causes PTSD. Others say absolutely not. In some research, peritraumatic dissociation does predict PTSD; in other research, it doesn’t. One study even reported that those who experienced peritraumatic dissociation were healthier than those who did … Continue reading
When Animal Defenses Encounter a Human Predator: Part IV
Victims of rape and childhood sexual abuse frequently describe dissociation-like experiences which occurred during the assault. Typically, we assume that these are dissociative experiences. But are they? I don’t think we really know. To be blunt about it, we have … Continue reading
When Animal Defenses Encounter a Human Predator: Part III
Spontaneous tonic immobility is common during rape, but it doesn’t discourage many rapists. The problem is that tonic immobility was designed by Nature to deal with animal predators (e.g., big cats and bears), not human ones. Human predators usually don’t … Continue reading
When Animal Defenses Encounter a Human Predator: Part II
Let’s take a closer look at tonic immobility. When does it happen? How does it affect the animal? How does it affect the predator? And, perhaps most importantly for our purposes, “Does tonic immobility have after-effects?” As we will see, … Continue reading
When Animal Defenses Encounter A Human Predator: Part I
Tonic immobility is the ‘last chance’ biological reflex that is triggered when an animal is caught by a predator. Today’s post focuses on a rarely noted fact about tonic immobility — it has 4 possible outcomes, not two: (1) death … Continue reading
Disentangling Animal Defenses From Dissociation: Part IV
Today, we focus on the ‘last chance’ animal defenses — those that spontaneously activate when an animal (which includes us!) is threatened with imminent death. So far, we have examined two ‘last chance’ defenses: (1) the evolution-prepared switch to accelerated … Continue reading
Disentangling Animal Defenses From Dissociation: Part III
My unvarnished opinion is that the dissociation literature’s discussions of animal defenses (1) routinely conflate different kinds of immobility (freezing) and (2) fail to appreciate crucial differences between trauma and biological survival. I have been reviewing that literature lately. The … Continue reading
Understanding Dissociation 