The Dissociative Child: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Management

Victimized at Home Revictimized by Peers: Domestic Child Abuse a Risk Factor for Social Rejection

“…Others focused on the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and dissociative disorders (e.g., Silberg 1998). Dissociation refers to a mental process which produces a lack of connection in the person's thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of self.…”

“…During the dissociation process, certain information is not associated with other information as it would normally be (Lev-Wiesel 2004). According to Silberg (1998), in order to detach themselves during a traumatic event, sexual abuse in particular, children tend to dissociate. The dissociative phenomenon, allows the child to survive and retain a relatively normal, functioning self (Midgley 2002).…”

Tempest in the Temple: Jewish Communities and Child Sex Scandals

“…This soul murder is characterized by a variety of psychological sequelae that have been docu-mented in an increasingly robust literature that has found that child sexual abuse is a risk factor for a large array of mental health, behavioral, and social problems that can occur regardless of socioeconomic level. In children, these problems include sleep difficulties, nightmares, night terrors, depression, poor school performance, wetting and bowl accidents, sexualized behaviors, suicidal ideation and self-harm, dissociation, conflicting attachment to the abuser, and feelings of self-blame (Putnam, 2003;Silberg, 1998;Briere, 1998;Faller, 2003). Newer research suggests that sexual abuse may be associated as well with enduring changes to children's developing brains (Teicher, 2002).…”

“…Sometimes right before leaving the house for the visit, Adina would go into a deep sleep, requiring her mother to carry her to the car. This variable behavior and escape from stress through sleep are symptoms often associated with dissociation, a frequent sequela of abuse among children and adult survivors (Silberg, 1998). As a further dissociative indicator, Adina reported to the first author that she felt like her mind was made of "two people," that one of them liked her daddy and one liked her mommy.…”

Attachment theory and child abuse: an overview of the literature for practitioners

“…The fields of attachment and child protection are beginning to interlink, but we have found it 'The fields of attachment and child protection are beginning to interlink' interesting to note that child sexual abuse rarely figures in the index of books on attachment, and vice versa. Some exceptions from the clinical field connect attachment with sexual abuse and dissociation (James, 1994;Freyd, 1996;Ross, 1997;Silberg, 1998;Wieland, 1997). Holmes (2000) outlines the way in which attachment theory might effect a rapprochement between different schools of thought in order to inform clinical listening and work with different narrative styles.…”