Winner of ISSTD's 2009 Pierre Janet Writing Award for the best publication on dissociation in 2009! Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders is a book that has no real predecessor in the dissociative disorders field. It reports the most recent scientific findings and conceptualizations about dissociation; defines and establishes the boundaries of current knowledge in the dissociative disorders field; identifies and carefully articulates the field’s current points of confusion, gaps in knowledge, and conjectures; clarifies the different aspects and implications of dissociation; and sets forth a research agenda for the next decade. In many respects, Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders both defines and redefines the field.

This second edition of the award-winning original text brings together in one volume the current thinking and conceptualizations on dissociation and the dissociative disorders. Comprised of ten parts, starting with historical and conceptual issues, and ending with considerations for the present and future, internationally renowned authors in the trauma and dissociation fields explore different facets of dissociation in pathological and non-clinical guises. This book is designed to be the most comprehensive reference book in the dissociation field and aims to provide a scholarly foundation for understanding dissociation, dissociative disorders, current issues and perspectives within the field, theoretical formulations, and empirical findings. Chapters have been thoroughly updated to include recent developments in the field, including: the complex nature of conceptualization, etiology, and neurobiology; the various manifestations of dissociation in clinical and non-clinical forms; and different perspectives on how dissociation should be understood. This book is essential for clinicians, researchers, theoreticians, students of clinical psychology psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and those with an interest or curiosity in dissociation in the various ways it can be conceived and studied.

An invaluable sourcebook on the complex relationship between psychosis, trauma, and dissociation, thoroughly revised and updated This revised and updated second edition of Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation offers an important resource that takes a wide-ranging and in-depth look at the multifaceted relationship between trauma, dissociation and psychosis. The editors – leaders in their field – have drawn together more than fifty noted experts from around the world, to canvas the relevant literature from historical, conceptual, empirical and clinical perspectives. The result documents the impressive gains made over the past ten years in understanding multiple aspects of the interface between trauma, dissociation and psychosis. The historical/conceptual section clarifies the meaning of the terms dissociation, trauma and psychosis, proposes dissociation as central to the historical concepts of schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder, and considers unique development perspectives on delusions and the onset of schizophrenia. The empirical section of the text compares and contrasts psychotic and dissociative disorders from a wide range of perspectives, including phenomenology, childhood trauma, and memory and cognitive disturbances, whilst the clinical section focuses on the assessment, differential diagnosis and treatment of these disorders, along with proposals for new and novel hybrid disorders. This important resource: • Offers extensive updated coverage of the field, from all relevant perspectives • Brings together in one text contributions from scholars and clinicians working in diverse geographical and theoretical areas • Helps define and bring cohesion to this new and important field • Features nine new chapters on: conceptions of trauma, dissociation and psychosis, PTSD with psychotic features, delusions and memory, trauma treatment of psychotic symptoms, and differences between the diagnostic groups on hypnotizability, memory disturbances, brain imaging, auditory verbal hallucinations and psychological testing Written for clinicians, researchers and academics in the areas of trauma, child abuse, dissociation and psychosis, but relevant for psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists working in any area, the revised second edition of Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation makes an invaluable contribution to this important evolving field.

Illustrates the critical association between pathological dissociation and trauma, and provides a clear synthesis of what is known about the psychobiology of dissociative disorders and the effects of pathological dissociation on cognition and memory. Amply illustrated with clinical vignettes, it also offers an array of diagnostic and treatment techniques.

Dissociation challenges many comfortable assumptions. Dissociative phenomena are often stark, extreme, and vivid. The identities of individuals with dissociation disorders shift between apparent opposites. Their pain is ignored. Trauma victims report floating above their injured bodies. Are these arcane, dramatic, or staged events, or does dissociation underlie some fundamental aspect of mental organization? Is dissociation the product of a troubled mind or a key to understanding the structure of consciousness and the mind-body relationship? Dissociation: Culture, Mind, and Body is the first book to combine cultural anthropology, cognitive psychology, neurophysiology, and the study of psychosomatic illness to present the latest information on the dissociative process. A variety of leading experts in each of these fields bring their knowledge on the unique role that dissociation plays in moderating social and psychological effects on the body. Dissociation: Culture, Mind, and Body is an invaluable resource for every student of dissociation and is designed for professionals in cross-cultural psychiatry and the influence of the mind on the body. Dissociation: Culture, Mind, and Body includes New theories of dissociation New measures of dissociation New evidence of the physical effects of dissociative processes