Dissociation, parental alienation myth, MPD/DID

Breaking the Addiction of Dissociation - Joanne's 2008 Conference Presentation
http://members.aol.com/smartnews/jo_08.htm

excerpt : Researching the term "dissociation" I found this definition by Dr. Bennett Braun: "the separation of an idea or thought process from the main stream of consciousness" (Braun, 1988). Everybody uses dissociation. People use it to screen out unnecessary stimuli. With untraumatized people, this is a choice and not problematical. Any time a person is focused in on something to the exclusion of one or more aspects of present day reality, they are using dissociation. Everyone here has used this - perhaps when reading a book, or practicing a musical instrument, or figuring out income tax. That kind of dissociation is helpful

Another way to think of dissociation is as a method of dealing with trauma by not knowing about it. The memory of events may be split into separate components. Dr. Bennett Braun developed the BASK model; an easy way to understand this. BASK stands for Behavior, Affect, Sensation and Knowledge.
If any one of these is missing in your memory of an event, then you are dissociating. "Behavior" is the action associated with an event. For myself, in times of stress, I find myself putting my hand on the back of my neck. I would do this unknowingly, with no conscious memories or reasons. This is a
behavior that originally I found meaningless. I became aware that when I did this, my mind would blank and I would lose all my thought processes

Affect is the emotions one had in response to an event. An example of this happened to me recently when doing dishes. I became aware that putting my hands into the warm dishwater brought a feeling of terror to me. I had no idea why. I just had a sensation and an affect (emotion) but no knowledge.
Sometimes I get knowledge of events from my past, but have absolutely no corresponding emotion or sensations to go with them. The affect (emotion) and sensations are walled off in a separate compartment. I can accept that this experience happened, but it certainly did not happen to "ME", whoever "Me" might be. I can flip back and forth between feeling the emotion, or feeling the sensation, or having the knowledge, but I am unable to put them all together in one package and claim ownership. I have a simultaneous knowing and not knowing of disturbing information.

Sometimes I dissociate sensation - I have the knowledge that I was sexually molested by my father. But I have had no physical sensations to go along with this - just the knowledge. I have a friend who experiences the opposite - sensation is the one element she has NOT dissociated. She has all the
physical feelings of events but no knowledge of what the events are.

Whether or not you define yourself as having Dissociative Identity Disorder, DIDNOS, or some other diagnosis, if you have experienced severe trauma and have not completely healed from it, you DO dissociate in a way which interferes with your ability to live your life the way


The Truth About Parental Alienation
Proponents of Parental Alienation portray parental alienation as a destructive family dynamic, usually manifesting during custody battles, in which one parent purportedly turns the child’’s sentiments against the other parent. Failure to recognize and correct this dynamic by ensuring that the child has a relationship with both parents, they claim, will cause great harm to the child. Indeed, nothing can be further from the truth. Parental Alienation is a discredited, pseudo-psychological theory whose application in custody determinations has caused great harm to children. http://www.stopfamilyviolence.org/ocean/host.php?folder=63


MPD/DID A Legitimate Diagnosis - Child abuse links http://pub34.bravenet.com/freelink/show.php?usernum=2889031400