Dissociogenic stress: A transcultural concept

Abstract

Traumatic stress takes different forms in different sociocultural contexts. It is more reasonable to include covert and apparently nontraumatic stress as a factor contributing to dissociative disorders, rather than to limit our attention to overt and stereotyped forms of trauma, such as childhood sexual and physical abuse. Despite their different manifestations, covert stress and overt stress may cause dissociative pathology under certain conditions. This condition could be the suppression of projection and externalization of negative mental contents under a given stress. The author would like to call this form of stress `dissociogenic stress.' Whether or not an individual develops a dissociative disorder as a result of dissociogenic stress also depends on the individual's constitutionally based dissociative and hypnotic tendency.