title: [Traditional and modern views of dissociation].
abstract: Dissociation is a failure to integrate aspects of identity, memory, perception, and consciousness. Dissociation is conceptualized as a dimensional process existing along a continuum from normal and relatively common dissociative experiences to severe and clinically relevant forms. There is a growing body of clinical and empirical evidence that dissociation may occur especially as a defense during trauma. In case of traumatic events dissociation considered as an attempt to maintain mental control just as physical control is lost. Dissociation can be either a symptom of some complex mental disorder or a distinct clinical entity categorized among dissociative and somatoform disorders in DSM-IV. The article describes the conceptual issues of dissociation and presents a new classification by Nijenhuis where the so-called somatoform dissociative symptoms are included as well in the list of dissociative symptoms. Finally, this paper summarizes the measures of dissociative phenomena and the cognitive-behavioral approaches of dissociation, and highlights the main features of the new structural dissociation model.
authors.affiliation: Debreceni Egyetem Orvos- es Egeszsegtudomanyi Centrum, Nepegeszsegugyi Kar, Magatartastudomanyi Intezet, Debrecen, Hungary. merza.katalin@sph.unideb.hu
authors.forename: Katalin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Merza
authors.forename: Ildikó
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kuritárné Szabó
mesh_terms: D003071:Cognition; D004213:Dissociative Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D012720:Severity of Illness Index