Re:Feelings without memories

The message about “dissociated volition” primarily concerned the need to include an appreciation for, and an assessment of, people’s relative “willful control” of themselves and events when reviewing dissociated material.

Circumstances such as developmental limitations (childhood), traumas, abusive relationships, impaired thinking (concussions, drugs and alcohol-especially when involuntary, malnutrition, stress, etc.), dissociative identity disorder (DID), and other psychological/medical/situational conditions are significant factors when understanding dissociative experiences.

Questions such as “How much control DID I have?” and “How much control DO I have?” serve to focus and support people when they mistakenly blame themselves for events for which they had little or no control.

Understanding previous times of relative “lack of volition” can lead to self-forgiveness and self-support. It can encourage people to fully develop their CURRENT coping and self-management abilities.

It is beyond this forum’s format to explore clinical examples that involve weakened conation or dissociated volition, e.g., subjugation, terror, suggestibility, unethical hypnosis, spontaneous trance, mental slavery, chronic and sadistic abuse, folie á deux, auditory hallucinations, intoxication, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc.

Your point that a belief about a previous “lack of volition” may be a negative cognition (NC) is understood. Though consider that people really may NOT have had sufficient control over previous traumatic situations. If true, the belief that oneself “did NOT have sufficient control” is actually a positive cognition in that it is supportive and it reflects the reality of the previous circumstances.

The forum post was more of a practical reminder to include people’s developmental level and state of consciousness when focusing on dissociated material. Below are a couple of online articles (mostly theoretical) that discuss the issue of unconscious behaviors (dissociated volition?). Though they don’t focus on treating dissociation they may be of interest. The articles are similar to the principles in Hilgard, E. R. (1980). "The Trilogy of Mind: Cognition, Affection, and Conation." Journal for the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 16, 107-117:

The Psychological Unconscious

Breakdown of Adaptation in Psychological Trauma

Replies:

Re:Feelings without memories, by Sandra Paulsen PhD, 10/10/03 Re:Feelings without memories, by , 10/11/03

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