DISSOCIATIVE REACTIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRAUMA : PRELIMINARY TESTS OF A PERCEPTUAL THEORY OF DISSOCIATION

Ten hypotheses were derived from 13eere's (in press) perception based theory of dissociation. Seven hypotheses received significant support. Although two hypotheses obtained inconsistent support, the results are explainable by the theory. The tenth hypothesis received no support. Two post hoc hypotheses pertinent to the tenth hypothesis and based on the theory received strong support, however, indicating that the last hypothesis was a misapplication of the theory. The results indicate, as predicted by the theory, that during trauma perception of the background (defined as "I," mind, body, world, and time) is lost or altered and becomes the dissociative reaction. In addition, the results indicate that specific dissociative reactions are unique to specific traumatic conditions. In contrast to current opinion, some dissociative reactions during trauma do not seem defensive but result from perceptual focus on the traumatic threat. Beere (1991a, 1991b, 1995, in press) presented a perception-based theory of dissociation and hypothesized that specific dissociative reactions (depersonalization, derealization, disembodiment, and detemporalization) would be associated with particular characteristics of the traumatic situation. This theory is a preliminary attempt to develop a comprehensive theory of dissociation, a theory which is currently unavailable (Putnam, 1989; Ross, 1989). In addition, the current theory extends Fine's (1988) conceptualisation that the cognitions evidenced by MPDs are tied to an underlying dysfunctional perceptual organization. Based on the work and the approach of phenomenological philosophers, most notably Merleau-Ponty (1962), Beere defined the "perceptual background," consisting of the "I," mind, body, world, and time, as the experiential context for all perceptual experience and hypothesized that specific dissociative symptoms originate from the loss of or change in the perceptual background. The perceptual background, which establishes and reveals the contextual meaning for experience, is always present during non-dissociated, everyday experience. The background maps one to one with the major symptoms of dissociation (Table 1): experiencing time loss, slowing or quickening; perceiving the world as unreal or dreamlike; perceiving one's body as unreal, not mine or changing size; experiencing one's mind as changed or unreal; and experiencing one's selfas losing will, continuity, or identity. Beere posited that the psychological mechanism which leads to perceptual loss of or change in the background during trauma was a focused perception on what was frightening. The rationale for the hypotheses tested in the current research is quite simple: the source of threat will engage perception, shifting it away from non-threatening, background components which then are experienced as the dissociative reactions. In addition, he hypothesized that dissociative reactions were of different psychological complexity and, this more complex and demanding reactions required more extreme and frightening trauma to elicit them. In other words, some background components are more readily ignored or altered than others. The original and preliminary formulation is presented in Table 2. This formulation attempts to 175 TABLE 1 Relationship Between Loss of or Change in the Perceptual Background and Dissociative Diagnosis Dissociative Disorder Fugue; Dissociative Identity Disorder Amnesia; Depersonalization Depersonalization Derealization Changes in time experience; time loss Component of the Background