ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the development of the theory of structural dissociation of the personality over the past two decades. This theory first proposes that both clinicians and researchers distinguish between the range of normal to pathological alterations in consciousness that are currently called dissociation, and the historical structural view of dissociation as a division of the personality. While there are significant alterations in consciousness in patients with structural dissociation, they are the result of different dynamics, and treatment approaches are not the same. Second, the theory offers an explanation of the naturally occuring psychobiological fault lines along which dissociative divisions can occur among evolutionary prepared motivational or action systems. The theory distinguishes two major prototypes and subsequent subtypes of dissociative parts that emerge and explains the factors that maintain dissociation, with a major focus on inner-directed trauma-related phobias. Finally, the theory offers guidance for the sequence of treatment, how to resolve trauma-related phobias, how to work with dissociative parts systemically, and how to integrate traumatic memories and dissociative parts.
