Dissociative disorders, trauma, and the birth of psychology: An examination of intertwined histories, towards an understanding of modern-day barriers to integration

The modern body of research indicates dissociative disorders as disorders of integrative functioning, the most severe of which, including Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), are caused by significant prolonged trauma in childhood. Though DID has a prevalence rate higher than that of schizophrenia and is nearly as prevalent as both bipolar I and II disorders combined, it remains a disorder that is rarely well understood—and at times not even acknowledged—by many mental health professionals. Additionally, despite the popularization of trauma awareness, many training programs still lack adequate, current information on dissociation and the dissociative disorders. This proliferates gaps in clinical care and competency for this high-risk trauma population and perpetuates tolls on public health. In some ways, the experience of a person with DID on an individual level has become an apt metaphor for a larger societal ‘dissociation’ that defends from the integration of this population and their stories. As in DID, understanding this process requires an understanding of the past. This integrated review of the literature delves back through the intertwined histories of dissociative disorders and the field of psychology itself to provide a deeper understanding of how these clinical gaps came to exist, what has kept them in place, and how to mend them. An extensive review and analysis of both current and historic literature on dissociative disorders has been completed, highlighting a number of themes. Beginning with the early study of traumagenic dissociative symptoms and DID during the emergence of psychology, moving through the impact of Freud, the early 20th century mid and post-war development of the post-traumatic stress disorder category, and the later 20th century sensationalizing and defamation of the then-called multiple personality disorder, a synthesizing narrative of the complex histories is provided, along with the implications for current clinical gaps and their mending.