A Network Analytic Approach to Dissociation: New Insights from Clinical Data.
Journal of trauma & dissociation : the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD) September 27, 2024 Philipp Wülfing, Carsten Spitzer
Dissociation—a fragmentation of consciousness, memory, identity, perception, body representation, or behavior—lacks a unified definition and its dimensionality is debated. Using Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) on the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) responses from 668 day-hospital psychotherapy patients with diverse mental disorders, a four-dimensional structure was initially found but proved unstable. After removing unstable items, a final network of 16 items mapped onto three stable dimensions: segregated processes, derealization/depersonalization, and absorption. This three-factor solution aligns with a bipartite model distinguishing altered states of consciousness (detachment) from non-integrated mental modules (compartmentalization), replicating and extending prior findings on dissociation's structure.