For this reason, much of this article focuses on the parents, in the hope of shedding light on the dynamics within the families. Technically, dissociation is a mental process which produces a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. When a person is dissociating, certain information is not associated with other information as it normally would be. For example, during a traumatic experience, a person may dissociate the memory of the place and circumstances of the trauma from his ongoing memory, resulting in a temporary mental escape from the fear and pain of the trauma and, in some cases, a memory gap surrounding the experience. Because this process can produce changes in memory, people who frequently dissociate often find their senses of personal history and identity are affected.
Most clinicians believe that dissociation exists on a continuum of severity.
At the other extreme is complex, chronic dissociation, which may result in serious impairment or inability to function. To family members, co-workers, and neighbors with whom they interact daily, they apparently function normally. Any evaluation of a person's ability to be a successful parent should be based on the circumstances of each particular case, and not on the fact that a person has been diagnosed with a dissociative disorder. Dissociative disorders develop under fairly consistent circumstances. This ability is typically used by children as an extremely effective defense against acute physical and emotional pain, or anxious anticipation of that pain.