Dissociation can affect various functions

Dissociation is characterized by the person being absent from the here and now, i.e. the person is more or less out of contact with the present surroundings.

Mild forms of dissociation occur normally in many healthy individuals, e.g. immediately after dreaming when it can be difficult to decide whether one is in the Real world or still in the dream-reality. In general, a high level of Stress increases the probability of dissociative experiences (DS).

Dissociative experiences in the form of acting and feeling as if a traumatic event, e.g. torture, is actually happening again, is relatively often frequent in torture survivors. This experience, labelled flashback, is the most common dissociative symptom in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Though awake, the affected person experiences extreme dissociative flashback episodes, that can be compared to experiencing Nightmares, about the torture episodes. Feelings, observations, perceptions and actions are fully experienced, as if the torture is actually ongoing.

The episodes normally stop spontaneously in the course of a couple of minutes. Other people present during an episode should keep calm. Apart from preventing harm that could be caused by the actions of the person affected, no specific interventions are needed. Shouting at and touching the person in a harsh way has to be avoided because of the risk of provoking feelings of aversion and violent behaviour. In most cases, different interventions can be tried to bring the person back to reality, e.g. talking to the person softly, seeking eye contact, directing the person? attention to objects in the present situation, etc.

There are other prominent symptoms similar to dissociation that could be caused by other underlying problems, e. g. persistent loss of reality due to psychotic disease or Substance abuse. In psychology and psychiatry, dissociation is described as a state in which certain functions of the psyche (even of the body), that are normally experienced as integrated with the rest of the functions, are now separated. For this reason, dissociation is sometimes referred to as “splitting” or Alienation of parts of the mind. Alienation can, in addition to its similarity to dissociation, also refer to an experience of being set apart from one social surroundings.

Dissociation can affect various functions such as thoughts, emotions, sensations, memories and even body-movements. Depending on which function(s) is(are) affected, special forms of dissociation are described as types of psychiatric disturbances (amnesia, fugue, identity disorder, Depersonalisation and conversion disorder). These special forms of dissociation might to some extent be relevant in cases of torture survivors. In addition to being symptoms of PTSD, these disturbances can also occur independently or as symptoms of other somatic or psychiatric diseases; a differential diagnosis should be performed by a specialist.