Theories & Models

Theory of Structural Dissociation

A theory that trauma keeps the personality divided into parts that run daily life (ANP) and parts that hold the trauma (EP).

ANP (Apparently Normal Part)

The part of the personality responsible for daily functioning (work, socializing, caretaking). Avoids trauma memories to maintain day-to-day life.

EP (Emotional Part)

The part that holds unprocessed traumatic memories, bodily sensations, and defensive survival responses (fight, flight, freeze, fawn, submit).

Primary, Secondary & Tertiary Structural Dissociation

Primary: one ANP and one EP (typical in simple PTSD). Secondary: one ANP and multiple EPs (typical in C-PTSD and OSDD). Tertiary: multiple ANPs and multiple EPs (typical in DID).

William James and Multiple Personality

The American psychologist who wrote about divided selves and the Ansel Bourne case in the late 1800s.

Pierre Janet and Trauma

The French doctor who wrote about trauma and the split-off mind in the 1880s, and whom the treatment Guidelines credit with treating in phases.

Judith Herman’s Stages of Recovery

Safety, remembrance and mourning, and reconnection, plus her newer fourth stage, justice.

Polyvagal Theory

A popular, and much debated, theory of three nervous system states: safe, fight-or-flight, and shut down.

Betrayal Trauma Theory

Why a child hurt by someone they depend on may not remember or “know” about the abuse.

AIP (Adaptive Information Processing) Model

The idea behind EMDR: how trauma memories may get “stuck” and how they might heal.

Is Dissociation a Spectrum?

The debate over whether everyday spacing out and DID are the same thing in different amounts, or different kinds of things.