1st Edition
Dissociation and the Dynamics of Personality Trauma, Consciousness, and Culture
Dissociation and the Dynamics of Personality addresses the nature of personality in trauma-dissociation and proposes a dynamic understanding of persons that fundamentally challenges conventional views of the self and consciousness.
This important book provides a clear and coherent understanding of how childhood trauma can lead to a range of dissociative responses, addressing the fundamental issues underlying the controversy in this field. By recognising causal complexity and the dynamic convergence of biology and culture, Boag demonstrates the significance of trauma-dissociation for understanding personality and consciousness. Drawing upon both philosophy of mind and current psychiatric and neurobiological evidence, this book proposes a dynamic understanding of persons that fundamentally challenges the conventional view of the self and consciousness.
Dissociation and the Dynamics of Personality will be of interest to readers concerned with the trauma-dissociation controversy, including philosophers of mind and psychiatrists. It will also interest psychological practitioners and psychologists, as well as anyone concerned with the implications of the dissociative mind for understanding personality.
Chapter 1
Introduction
Chapter 2
Dissociation and the logic of relations
Chapter 3
Does trauma cause dissociation?
Chapter 4
Foundations of modern theories of dissociation
Chapter 5
On the nature of dissociative parts
Chapter 6
Developmental pathways to structural dissociation
Conclusion and going forward
References
Biography
Simon Boag is Associate Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences at Macquarie University, Australia. He has published extensively on the topics of personality psychology and psychodynamic theory and is the author of Metapsychology and the Foundations of Psychoanalysis and Freudian Repression, the Unconscious, and the Dynamics of Inhibition (both Routledge).
“This book runs a magnifying glass over the logic and conceptualisation of the link between dissociation and trauma, and the construct of dissociation more broadly. Few have taken such a bold and necessary step, and in this highly informative and engaging book, Boag offers clarity and guidance, writing with an accessible and unpretentious style. This book offers genuine insights into theory building and the construct of dissociation and sharpens further the most sophisticated model in the field, the Structural Theory of Dissociation. While addressing debates and engaging in useful theoretical housekeeping, this work also has major implications for understanding dissociation clinically and conceptually. Boag’s insights and clarity of thought are welcomed and significant additions to the trauma and dissociation fields.”
Martin Dorahy, PhD, DClinPsych, is a clinical psychologist and professor in the Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He has a clinical, research and theoretical interest in complex trauma, dissociative disorders and self-conscious emotions (e.g., shame). He has published peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and co-edited five books in the area of psychotraumatology, including most recently, Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorder, 2nd Ed (with Steve Gold and John O’Neil).
