Somatoform Dissociation in Traumatized World War I Combat Soldiers

Phase-Oriented Treatment of Structural Dissociation in Complex Traumatization: Overcoming Trauma-Related Phobias

“…In conceptualizing these prototypical dissociative parts of the personality, we take as a point of departure a little-known but important work of the British World War I psychologist, Charles Samuel Myers (1940), who described a basic form of structural dissociation in acutely traumatized ("shell-shocked") World War I combat soldiers (cf., Van der Hart, Van Dijke, Van Son, & Steele, 2000). This dissociation involves the co-existence of and alternation between a so-called Emotional [Part of the] Personality (EP) which is fixated in one or more traumatic memories and focused on the detection of threat, and a so-called Apparently Normal [Part of the] Personality (ANP) which is fixated in trying to go on with normal life while being phobically avoidant of one or more traumatic memories, manifesting in degrees of detachment, numbing, depersonalization, and partial or complete amnesia.…”

The relationship of childhood trauma, dissociative experiences and depression with pain in female patients with fibromyalgia: a cross-sectional study

“…Dissociation, which is a phenomenon that eases to adapt to trauma, especially in children and adolescents, is becoming maladaptive if it has elongated duration, spreads to other areas of life, and increases in severity (17). Dissociative experiences include somatoform indications as well as psychoform indications reflecting amnesia, depersonalization, derealization, identity confusion, and identity fragmentation (18,19). Somatoform dissociation includes several somatic indications such as analgesia, anesthesia, changes in smell and taste senses, motor control loss and pain, which are characteristic for dissociative patients (20).…”

Somatoform dissociation among Swedish adolescents and young adults: The psychometric properties of the Swedish versions of the SDQ-20 and SDQ-5

“…The mean age in the clinical group was 19.9 years (SD = The SDQ-20 has been used in studies with clinical groups (16)(17)19) and in two studies in the general population in Finland (22,34). The reported Cronbach's alpha in the clinical samples has been α = .91-.98 (6)(7)(19)(20), while it has been lower in samples from the general population with α = .83 (22). The SDQ-20 has also shown high correlation with the Dis-Q, giving r = .76, r = .82, and r = .73 for the total scale, and the subscales yielding the following results: identity confusion r = .73; loss of control r = .70; amnesia r = .71; and absorption r = .46 (6)(7)20).…”

“…Nijenhuis et al (6)(7) argue that it is necessary not only to think of dissociation as a mental process, but also to take into consideration the bodily expressions of dissociation. According to , it is important to give attention to the somatic expressions of dissociation such as loss of bodily feelings, and disturbances in seeing, hearing, perception, and moving.…”

“…Nijenhuis, together with colleagues (6) Several studies have found correlations between potentially traumatic experiences and dissociative symptoms (7,16,(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29). Some studies also indicate that dissociative symptoms are inflicted to a greater extent by the cumulative effects of traumas (polytraumatisation) than by a single trauma (30)(31), and also that interpersonal traumas generate more dissociative symptoms than non-interpersonal traumas (22,30,(32)(33)(34).…”