The theory of dissociation in
psychoanalysis
The purpose of this essay is
to pick up the topic of dissociation and refine aswell as readjust it in such a
way that we can use in our clinical setting. Dissociation has been discussed
increasingly in recent psychoanalytic literature. Works by Phillip Bromberg ( )
and Donnel Stern ( ) are most conspicuous examples. We can find very precious
messages from their works; the concept of dissociation not only plays an
important role in stressing the issue of trauma and supplement the deficit
model, but also proposes a paradigm with such concepts as therapist’s
spontaneity, subjectivity and enactment as a key to treating those suffer from
trauma. However, what is discussed as dissociation in their works is limited to
what Stern called “weak dissociation”. In this paper I would like to propose a
system of theory which also includes what Stern called “strong dissociation of
Dissociation with capital D what I would like to call.
