Global Perspectives on Dissociative Disorders

Dissociative disorders are one of the psychiatric consequences of childhood psychological trauma. While oppression is an aspect of traumatic conditions, dissociation undermines resistance to oppression throughout a person’s lifespan. Neither oppression nor dissociation are restricted to particular cultures, and both can affect the individual as well as societies.

This collection engages with the universality of dissociative disorders and their close relationship to oppression. The chapters cover extreme examples such as ongoing incest in adulthood, children and adults forced to kill others, and abusive states in interrogation. Further subjects examined include the utilization of dissociation in postmodern societies to maintain oppression, the oppressive conditions of asylum seekers and the consequences of oppression as they are dealt with in psychotherapy. The final chapter considers how a paedophile pandering network employed multi-layered oppression to prevent the public becoming aware of the widespread and organised abuse of children.

This book will engender interactions between trauma investigators – those whose approach is close clinical observation, those who use instruments to survey groups of individuals, those whose research takes the form of investigative journalism, and those who examine the truth embedded or hidden in documents created for multiple, and at times, disturbing political purposes.

Portions of this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. It also includes material from other sources.

Vedat Sar, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry in Istanbul University, Turkey. He has previously been president of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) and president elect of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS). He has published numerous studies on adult psychiatric consequences of childhood trauma and dissociative disorders covering diagnosis, epidemiology, neurobiology, and treatment. He has been awarded the Cornelia Wilbur Award and Morton Prince Award for Scientific Achievement for his work on dissociative disorders.

Warwick Middleton, MB BS, FRANZCP, MD, is Adjunct Professor at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia, at the University of New England, Armidale, USA, and at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. He is Associate Professor at the School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Australia. Professor Middleton has made substantial and ongoing research contributions to the fields of bereavement, trauma, dissociation and psychotherapy. He currently chairs the Cannan Institute and is Director of the Trauma and Dissociation Unit, Belmont Hospital, Brisbane, Australia, and is a Board member and Fellow of the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.

Martin Dorahy, PhD, DClinPysch, is Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He is on the board of Directors of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation. He has published widely on dissociative disorders and complex trauma. He maintains a private practice focused on adult outcomes of complex childhood trauma.