Dissociation as Disassociating from One's Associations: An Experiential Perspective on the Issues of Dissociation and Enactment in Psychoanalytic Therapy

Using Stern's (2004) clear constructivistic exposition on the issues of dissociation, enactment, and the achievement of conflict as a point of departure, I will present an alternative and experiential perspective on these issues. I propose that dissociation, rather than being the result of the absence of experienced internal conflict, as Stern, following Bromberg (1998), avers, is actually the consequence, as the term phonetically suggests, of one's dis-associating or “dissing” one's own associations. I use the colloquial word “dis” as it is commonly meant—to show disrespect to, and, by implication, to disavow, to disengage from, and perhaps even to disdain. And if you dis someone, she/he is not going to want to come around again, or worse, may retaliate against you. As this, for example, may apply to one's associations, which arise as part of the free movement of emergent and unbidden experience, if one does not follow and utilize one's associations as they occur to an analyst during the course of a session, such associations may not be readily available to one's awareness as a result. Hence, they will be dis-sociated.

What might seem like a simple humorous play on the word “dissociation” is actually the beginning of a serious and broader psychoanalytic line