(Ridgeview Institute and the International Society for the Study of Dissociation, 1994-09) Sands, Susan H.
Our current view of the severe dissociative disorders as trauma-based implies that the dissociated material consists of the traumatic abuse memories, related traumatic affects, etc., and does not adequately address what else is dissociated. It is argued here that chronic, severe trauma also results in the splitting off of the child's healthy, developmental, relational needs and longings. By segregating those needs and longings which are offensive to the child's pathologically-vulnerable caretakers, dissociative defenses serve to maintain and regulate relatedness to others. This expanded view of dissociation suggests that the treatment of severe dissociative disorders must include the remobilization of those early relational need states within the transference relationship and their integration into the patient's central self experience.
