Dissociative processes: theoretical underpinnings of a working model for clinician and patient.

Dissociative symptoms are now widely recognized, but they are nevertheless challenging for clinicians and bewildering to patients. The author presents a conceptual framework for understanding dissociative processes, emphasizing discontinuity in experience and delineating various junctures in the unfolding of dissociative episodes. The conceptual framework provides the theoretical underpinnings for a simple schema that can be used to explain dissociation to patients and to help them articulate their dissociative experience.