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Defense Mechanisms: Neuroscience Meets Psychoanalysis

Suppression and dissociation, two psychoanalytic defense mechanisms, are now studied by modern neuroscience














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Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Neuroscience Meets Psychoanalysis".


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  1. 1. technophile50 01:55 PM 4/14/09

    "But when in her other state, she claims not to recall anything related to her rape." I think it is clear from the rest of the article that she isn't just claiming not to recall, but in fact does -not- recall, because involuntary defensive neurobiological processes are blocking recall. It's not as though the room where these memories are stored has the lights off, but as far as she is aware (in this state) this room doesn't exist.

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  2. 2. ramesam 09:39 PM 4/14/09

    Article says: "Dissociation may be the result of a disruption of certain connections among brain regions. Hence, dissociative disorders may result from the failure of coordination or integration of the distributed neural circuitry that represents subjective self-awareness."

    Comment: It may be added, just for completion, that not merely the 'integration of the distributed neural circuitry' but also the 'architecture' of the neural circuitry as well as the slow electrical activity of the glial cells (e.g. astrocytes) etc. will have an influence as recent research papers indicate.

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  3. 3. verdai 08:19 PM 5/19/09

    This is Soooo widespread, that it isn't funny.

    In fact, I am terribly sick of putting up with it.
    People really need to recognize it; and any thing that will further that end such as research, should be used in force.

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  4. 4. verdai 08:19 PM 5/19/09

    This is Soooo widespread, that it isn't funny.

    In fact, I am terribly sick of putting up with it.
    People really need to recognize it; and any thing that will further that end such as research, should be used in force.

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  5. 5. verdai 08:19 PM 5/19/09

    This is Soooo widespread, that it isn't funny.

    In fact, I am terribly sick of putting up with it.
    People really need to recognize it; and any thing that will further that end such as research, should be used in force.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  6. 6. debralovesgospelmusic 10:08 PM 12/7/09

    I work in a prison with the mental health population. I have seem so many cases of women who during a "disassociated" mental state, committed a crime. They do not have memory of it. They have no reason to lie as they are in prison for life. We truly must work to understand the brain, mind and mental states so that we may help this problem. These women are living desperate lives...because of actions, they don't even remember.

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  7. 7. lookingaround in reply to technophile50 01:56 PM 5/8/10

    I agree with technophile50's comment and gave light to a better understanding. It's true, for the people the room just does not exist at all.

    I think, it's important, according to the last comment of debralovesgospelmusic, that we remember the suffering experienced by someone with DID, as the personality moves here and there, rooted in a fragmentation...Expose the benefits of the talking cure in some patients would be interesting too.

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  8. 8. kayfgibbs in reply to technophile50 07:06 PM 3/13/11

    I discovered information at The Veteran's Hospital in Durham, NC which stated that dissociation was recognized by writers. Of course it is, they have a piece or your mind. I have experienced dissociation many times and not just because I endured some trauma. I have had problems locating things in my apartment because my neighbor has jacked me up into another state, maybe psychologists call it a paradigm shift, I don't know. For three years I completely lost memories of repeated sexual abuses I endured during my military enlistment. I even acted some of them out not realizing they were actually repressed memories of my assaults. It wasn't until 1989 that I began to put things together. Even bits of the event were put into a film.

    So, do we really dissociate or are we just having our memories ripped off?

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  9. 9. kayfgibbs 07:09 PM 3/13/11

    "I even acted some"
    Correction - acted out

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