Structural Theory Of Dissociation
We haven’t posted for a while, hope this is of interest to some of you, just a quick basic breakdown of structural dissociation theory.
The structural theory of dissociation is an interesting area to look at. Although often literature refers the causes of structural dissociation to incidents or events of trauma – similar experiences can be had by sufferers of personality or dissociative disorders who do not have trauma genic experiences.
ANP – Apparently Normal Person/Part – Use of the wording “apparently normal” is due to this being a psychological term, which would mean it wouldn’t be correct to describe something objectively as normal, however it primarily means the person who is born and who has experienced the difficulties initially at least.
EP – Emotional Part – This doesn’t mean a part or alter in the sense of DID necessarily, this can be a slightly altered state of consciousness in line with a dissociative experience often pertaining to a difficult/stressful or traumatic experience – which may or may not include a level of re-experiencing.
On the most basic level which would occur post a single traumatic event, such as a car crash, the structural theory dictates that there would be a single ANP and a single EP – when triggered by individual triggers to that person they may present in a way that served a function at the time of trauma/difficulty i.e. freezing or running away from somewhere etc. But that EP would not be able to function in day to day life. If you like EP’s are like the part of your brain or personality that remains “ill” or “affected” most by the experiences you encounter throughout life, and you as an ANP can function well largely – except when you are pushed into an EP.
Secondary dissociative experience is when you may have multiple EP’s that serve different functions depending on what has triggered the experience in the present. This is commonly experienced with Borderline Personality Disorder or Complex – PTSD. It is again important to note that despite EP’s serving a purpose they cannot function day to day in the same way an ANP can or could.
Tertiary dissociative experiences are in line with Dissociative Identity Disorder, and this is when there is the formation of multiple ANP’s and EP’s – the EP’s may not even be connected to the initial or primary ANP – so there may be a spider web type system as it were. There are often, and until therapy has taken place total amnesic barriers between ANP’s, but potentially less so with EP’s if they have connection with the initial ANP.
A transition to an EP state may be because part of the ANP’s brain has emotions, needs, wishes, memories, sensations, or desires that need or they wish to be fulfilled by these are not acceptable to the ANP hence the tendency to disconnect from what is going on or required more so.
