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Education Matters: Denial in Dissociation

© Diane W. Hawkins, M.A.

"…when denial is no longer needed, neither is dissociation."

Once considered merely an annoying appendage to the diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), denial is now being recognized as the glue that holds the dissociation in place. The fact is that DID would not exist without the mind's need for denial. In other words, when denial is no longer needed, neither is dissociation.

DID originates when severe, repeated childhood trauma produces intolerable conflicts which the young psyche, under extreme duress, resolves by splitting itself into separate identities. This enables part of the person to encapsulate the unbearable event so that other parts can live as if it had never occurred.

Intolerable conflicts arise whenever seemingly vital beliefs are threatened. These beliefs may involve survival, safety, functionality, identity, morality, religious commitments, or any other issue that is viewed as unable to be compromised.

For instance, most young children, because of their extreme vulnerability, believe that they cannot survive without a protective parent or caretaker. Therefore, if Daddy violently hurts the children, this creates an intolerable conflict with the child's belief concerning what is necessary for survival. The child resolves the conflict by creating a dissociative split in its own mind, which allows part of him/her to "not know" about the event and thus continue believing he/she has a protective caretaker and therefore the means to survive.

The same kind of intolerable conflict arises when a person is faced with an absolute need to function and yet is too overwhelmed by the impact of the trauma to do so or a person committed to high moral standards is forced to participate in "unthinkable" activities. Again dissociation provides the means by which part of the person can be separated from knowledge of the trauma and thus be able to do such crucial things as function normally or maintain its moral identity.

Perpetrators who understand the mechanism of dissociation may deliberately create such conflicts fo their victims whenever their agenda calls for another split-off part or extreme secrecy. They can readily do this by subjecting the victims to trauma which seems unsurvivable or evokes intolerable emotions, such as life-threatening terror, humiliating shame, or unbearable guilt, or by forcing them to participate in activities which drastically conflict with their own moral or religious beliefs.

Each of these situations will generate an intense need to deny that the event ever occurred, which will invariably create the dissociative wall the perpetrators desire. They can usually rest assured that the person will also be deeply invested in never taking it down as that would mean confronting the unbearable reality or emotions.