Culture, trauma and dissociation: A broadening perspective for our field

Abstract

In the field of trauma and dissociation, culture has a significant influence on the clinical presentation of patients. A growing body of literature addresses the relationship between culture and dissociation. Studies of this relationship though, evoke the important, but at the same time extremely sensitive issue of cross-cultural comparisons. In this editorial, I provide a limited overview of various ways in which cultural influences have been addressed in the field of trauma and dissociation. Most studies have examined the occurrence of dissociative disorders in clinical populations in different cultures and countries. Some have focused on normative dissociation as a response to traumatic events in non-clinical samples from different cultures. This editorial also explores the concepts of double consciousness and black consciousness, which have emerged from the fields of social psychology and black psychology; and how these concepts influence our thinking about non-clinical dissociation. Culture-related challenges in the field of trauma and dissociation create opportunities for training in cultural competence for therapists. Qualitative research methods might be best suited to future research on the relationship between culture, trauma and dissociation. The chances of reaching a thorough and deep understanding of the influence of culture on trauma and dissociation might be best if the entire spectrum of dissociation is studiedfrom normal to pathological dissociation, and in its different manifestations from universal to those unique to certain cultural groups.

Dissoanalysis as a Modern Psychotraumatology Theory: Denial Trauma and Mass Dissociation versus Dissociative Revolution and Psychocommunal Therapy

“…"Dual consciousness" is the internalization of the difference between how others "negatively" see you and how you "positively" see yourself. In order to scientifically reveal the effect of culture on trauma and dissociation, psychosocially focused "dual consciousness" and "cultural identity change" studies should focus on both normal and psychopathological aspects [37][38][39]. According to the theory of dissoanalysis, individuals exposed to two dominant cultures for long periods of time experience dual consciousness in a cultural duality.…”

“…The concept of consciousness in Mensah's dual consciousness phenomenon is more identical with the presence of "stranger" in a cultural environment that is relatively inflexible in terms of psychogenicity than race [40]. In this dual consciousness process, there is an intense struggle for the integration of different selves with various psychosocial contexts [1,37]. Ozturk defines permanent city or country change as "developmental migration", which serves for a positive restructuring of one's self in a way that will enable one to get rid of the negative living conditions and psychopathogenic dynamics and enable them to use their potential [1,3,41].…”

Prenatal Broken Bonds: Trauma, Dissociation and the Calming Womb Model

“…Some of the major bonding obstacles include, but are not limited to; Recurrent post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) leading to depression, PTSD associated to prenatal substance abuse (Delker et al, 2020;Sanjuan et al, 2019), anticipatory anxiety, unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, maternal separations from loved ones, abandonment by partner, family illness, financial deficits or poverty, family deaths, hormonal and acute physiological changes, baby's gender, domestic violence history and recent occurrences, unresolved spontaneous abortion (SAB) or planned abortion (TAB) trauma or fetal demise, medical trauma, genetic fetal disorder/complications, preexisting mental disorder or concurrent multiple diagnosis, pregnancy rejection, pregnancy denial, fetal idealization, recent immigration, language barrier, cultural (Kruger, 2020), gender and racial oppression, religious restrictions, affect phobia, unresolved grief, recent flashbacks, nightmares, memories of previously dissociated trauma. Swales et al (2018) findings suggest that the effects of childhood exposure to traumatic events remained after accounting for more proximal traumatic events in adulthood, and that these early traumatic experiences foretell cortisol levels in at-risk pregnant women and prenatal covarying after adult trauma.…”

High dissociatives, nature versus nurture?

“…Though most dissociative processes are associated to clinical disorders, dissociative experiences occur in the general population, and non-pathological types of dissociation have been described, which are referred to as normative dissociation (Butler, 2006;Orbach, 1994;Spiegel & Cardeña, 1991), or subclinical dissociation, in individuals with a high tendency to dissociate (Kihlstrom, 2005). Currently, nonpathological dissociative experiences are considered to be fairly frequent among the normal population (Krüger, 2020;Putnam, 1991;Romero-López, 2016;Ross et al, 1990;Spiegel & Cardeña, 1991), and dissociation is viewed as a psychological mechanism that is present to some degree in everybody (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986), with new tests being designed to measure dissociation in healthy and pathological individuals (Černis et al, 2020Marsden et al, 2021).…”