Defining dissociation : A scoping review of theories of dissociation

Sammanfattning

Background: Dissociation as a psychological concept has no widely recognized definition, de-spite that it has been the focus of increasing research since the 1980’s. The many attempts to for-mulate an accurate description of dissociation have not resulted in a consensually agreed defini-tion. This has implications for clinical practice as it results in big differences in how patients withdissociative disorders are met and which treatments are provided from care providers. Methods: A scoping review was conducted to find published articles with theories of dissociationfrom 1980 and 2026. Articles were included if they tried to give a general, comprehensive theoryof dissociation. An evaluation of the theories through Reuther’s Three Problems of dissociationwas conducted, a novel method for evaluating theories of dissociation through examining whatforms of dissociation the theory includes, what ontological model of the mind is being used andhow dissociation occurs in this model, and if dissociation is exclusively pathological. Results: 20 articles were included, summarized and evaluated. Results show a wide variation be-tween the theories, where most theories are conceptually incompatible with each other on somelevel. Only two theories were rated as adequately answering all three questions. Most theories useda novel ontological model of the mind, only three theories used established frameworks. Conclusions: The included articles approach the phenomena of dissociation from a wide array ofangles, often contradicting other theories. Conceptual clarity has been lacking in all three evalu-ated areas. One major challenge is that there are no falsifiable theories of consciousness which canprovide an underlying framework for a theory of dissociation. Suggestions are given for future re-search.