Cognitive Processes in Dissociation: Comment on Giesbrecht et al. (2008)

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: J. Douglas Bremner, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2010-01
• Publisher: American Psychological Association
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2012 APA, all rights reserved.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://www.apa.org/
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Psychological Bulletin
• ISSN: 0033-2909
• Volume: 136
• Issue: 1
• Start Page: 1
• End Page: 11
• Grant/Funding Information: The author is supported by NIH research grants R01 HL088726, K24 MH076955, T32 MH067547-01, and R01 MH56120 and VA Merit and DOD CDMRP funding.
• Keywords: dissociative disorders; trauma; memory; PTSD; dissociation; absorption
• Research Categories: Psychology, Cognitive

Abstract

In “Cognitive Processes in Dissociation: An Analysis of Core Theoretical Assumptions,” published in Psychological Bulletin, Giesbrecht, Lynn, Lilienfeld, and Merckelbach (2008) have challenged the widely accepted trauma theory of dissociation, which holds that dissociative symptoms are caused by traumatic stress. In doing so the authors outline a series of links between various constructs, such as fantasy proneness, cognitive failures, absorption, suggestibility, altered information-processing, dissociation, and amnesia, claiming that these linkages lead to the false conclusion that trauma causes dissociation. A review of the literature, however, shows that these are not necessarily related constructs. Careful examination of their arguments reveals no basis for the conclusion that there is no association between trauma and dissociation. The current comment offers a critical review and rebuttal of the argument of Giesbrecht et al. that there is no relationship between trauma and dissociation.