Van der Hart's Structural Dissociation Theory: what it is and what it explains

Traumatic events can seriously damage our personality. Depending on the type of event and how long one has been a victim, trauma can cause the personality to split into different structures.

On the one hand there is the most functional structure, the one that most resembles what a “normal” person would be, while the other lives In the traumatic event, she is paralyzed and frozen, she cannot flee or fight against what she experienced, so she chooses to dissociate

van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation It is a model that explains how this process of personality splitting occurs. Below we will see in more depth how this happens, what personality structures are involved and what degrees of affectation there may be.

• Related article: "Dissociative disorders: types, symptoms and causes"

What is van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation?

Van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation of personality is a theoretical model that tries to explain how, when faced with the experience of a traumatic event, the personality of the person who has experienced it splits into several rigid and closed structures between them.

. This theory has been used to explain different behavioral and personality phenomena associated with disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, and identity disorder dissociative.

Before delving into the model, we must first understand what is meant by “dissociation” both in the field of psychiatry and clinical psychology. Defining this idea is somewhat complex, but what we can highlight is that it is a defense mechanism that people sometimes use, especially in the face of a highly disturbing and traumatic event, and whose consequences on the structure and coherence of personality can be very varied.

Onno van der Hart, together with his collaborators, define dissociation as the division of personality or consciousness. It could be understood how the behavioral and personality traits of a person end up transforming into different parts, something as if the same individual were made up of several people. According to the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), dissociation can be understood as the disconnection or lack of connection between elements of personality.

But now that we have talked about the dissociation of personality, we must understand what is meant by personality itself, especially the integrated or “healthy” one. Personality is understood within the theory of structural dissociation as a set of systems that, in turn, At the same time, each one of them is made up of a set of interrelated elements that create a whole, coherent and integrated. This whole thing is the personality of the individual, those traits that define him and make him behave in one way or another in countless situations.

The two personality systems

Within this model it is argued that personality works with two main systems. One of them is the system in charge of approaching pleasant, attractive and ultimately appetitive stimuli for the individual., encouraging behaviors that bring us closer to pleasant objects, people or situations, such as eating for nutrition, talking with friends, meditating to relax...

On the other hand we have the system in charge of protecting the body from threats and unpleasant situations. This system is based on avoidance or flight, avoiding situations perceived as dangerous or facing aggressive and disruptive elements in order to emerge victorious from the situation. It makes us flee from a robber or confront someone who has offended us. By carrying out confrontation or avoidance behaviors we try to keep the structure of our personality intact.

Both systems are considered action systems and have a psychobiological component. Each of them is prone to act innately in certain situations and, thus, achieve particular objectives. As we just mentioned, the first is responsible for bringing us closer to what benefits us, while the second protects us from what harms us.

It should be said that, although there are certain behaviors that are exclusive to one system or the other, others can be included in both systems. For example, eating in itself is a biological need, something that satisfies us and gives us pleasure, that is, it would be an activity of the system in search of pleasant sensations. On the other hand, eating can also be a way of coping with negative emotions, trying to fill those painful feelings with food.

In short, both systems act and are part of our personality, helping us to act, think, feel and perceive in multiple ways. The first system helps us adapt by seeking pleasant sensations, while the other protects us from what could harm us physically and psychologically.. Both systems are used on a daily basis at different times, but almost never simultaneously. Either we approach a stimulus to feel pleasure or we confront and/or flee from another to avoid pain.

• You may be interested: "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

personality breakdown

So what happens when we need to activate both action systems to survive? What happens when they are activated simultaneously for a long time? Well, what happens is that there is a problem, since the personality becomes very unstable, it can fragment, dividing the hitherto coherent structure of the personality and entering a situation of dissociation.

Before going into more depth about the different dissociated structures of personality proposed in the theory of van der Hart's structural dissociation we are going to take a case presented by himself in collaboration with Kathy Steele and Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis in his book “The Tormented Self” from 2008. In this book they expose the quite interesting, curious and sad case of the former Miss America Marilyn van Derbur, who in her early childhood was a victim of sexual abuse.

Van Derbur herself spoke of how she felt that her personality was split in two, as if she were actually two people sharing the same body: the girl during the day and the girl at night. The girl during the day was a withdrawn young woman focused on what she had to do during the day: complete her studies and be a normal girl. This girl was totally detached from what was happening to the girl at night, feeling amnesia. On the other hand, the girl at night was the one who endured the sexual abuse and only focused on defending herself, on getting through the bad times.

Let's use this same example but talking about any hypothetical girl. A normal girl cannot emerge mentally stable from a situation of sexual abuse. The same person who suffers sexual abuse at night and has to lead a normal life during the day feels in a situation that is too tense. to move forward in one piece, since it is a situation that is too difficult and complex for her psyche to remain intact.

When she receives abuse, the second system is activated, that is, that of avoidance and fight.. The normal thing would be to try to fight or flee from the situation, but the truth is that such a small girl cannot do one or the other. On the one hand, she cannot face her sexual abuser, an adult much older than her, and on the other hand, she cannot run away from him. since, despite harming her, he is also the one who takes care of her, gives her food and shelter, especially if we are talking about sexual abuse. father-daughters

Since the defense system cannot function properly, much less in a girl who does not have the independence or linguistic capacity to denounce the facts, since she can neither flee nor fight, she has to look for another way: dissociation. The girl freezes, pulls her mind away from consciousness and, since she cannot physically flee, she mentally flees. Dissociating makes you suffer as little as possible.

After experiencing this, the girl cannot go about her daily life normally and defend herself at the same time. As we have commented, you cannot have both action systems activated, trying to make life as pleasant as possible while trying to defend himself from what happens to him. In the end both systems separate and become two independent personality structures. Going back to Van Derbur's case, during the day the pleasure system is activated, trying to be normal, while during the day At night the defense system is activated, which chooses to “freeze” when feeling that she cannot do anything to combat the abuses.

This particular example of division of action systems is a clear case of structural dissociation of personality. Given the lack of cohesion, coordination and integration between both systems that form the basis of personality of a person, that is, their system of attractive stimuli and that of avoidance and escape from stimuli threatening. This example of dissociation that we have just seen is what happens in disorders such as complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD).

The dissociative parts of the personality

Within van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation we talk about two types of dissociative parts of personality: the apparently normal personality (PAN) and the emotional personality (EP).

The Apparently Normal Personality (PAN)

The PAN is the part of a person's personality that seeks to continue with his daily life in the most normal and functional way possible. It is directed by the action system that seeks adaptation, that is, it focuses on attractive stimuli and approaches them. At the same time, it is the part that avoids remembering traumatic events since, if you do so frequently and relive them in the form of flashbacks, it would be impossible to lead a normal life, since the person would remain paralyzed constantly.

The Emotional Personality (EP)

The PE is the part of the personality that It has remained fixed at the moment of traumatization and is associated with the system of avoidance of threatening stimuli.. He becomes obsessed with avoiding the unpleasant, with not experiencing it again. A trait associated with PE in a person who has suffered sexual abuse would be to be hypervigilant, flee or fight in a situation that reminds you of what you experienced, even though it apparently has nothing to do with it. see.

The PAN and the PE are closed and rigid structures with respect to each other. There are emotions in both parts, not only in PE, and it should be noted that structural dissociation can encompass multiple divisions of both types, that is, a person does not have to have only one PAN and one PE, that is, two personalities speaking in a somewhat colloquial. In healthy people who have not suffered any trauma these two structures will be together and associated.

The three types of structural dissociation

There are several factors that cause structural dissociation of personality to occur. Among them we have experiences of mistreatment, sexual abuse and child neglect.. Furthermore, early traumatization in childhood and the prolongation of the event increases the severity of the condition. Dissociation is a defense mechanism that is used to protect oneself and be able to lead a daily life in the best possible way in the face of traumatic events.

Within Van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation we can identify up to three types of dissociation structural, that is, three degrees of severity in which the personality of an individual can be fragmented into different structures.

1. Primary structural dissociation

Primary structural dissociation is the simplest and most basic of the model and arises from a traumatic experience that, as far as possible, is of moderate severity.. The personality of the individual is divided into a single PAN and a single PE, that is, there are only two personality structures isolated from each other.

The PAN takes on the main role, being what we would understand as the desirable personality of the individual, while the PE has not been fully developed. That is, the individual has a functional personality that prevails in their daily life but, sometimes, unpleasant memories associated with the trauma emerge.

This type of dissociation would be what we would find in disorders such as simple PTSD, acute stress disorder and somatization.

2. Secondary structural dissociation

Secondary structural dissociation implies a greater degree of complexity. In this case we are talking about cases in which the traumatic event has been so overwhelming and prolonged that its effect has been more intense on the personality structure. The PE is divided into several parts, while the PAN continues to remain a whole entity and functions as the main personality. The PE is divided into several structures because it has not been able to integrate different forms of defense such as fight, flight, paralysis and submission.

This type of structural dissociation is typical of people who have BPD and complex PTSD.

3. Tertiary structural dissociation

Tertiary structural dissociation is the most serious of all. In this case, not only PE and PAN are separated from each other, but we are also talking about several PEs and several PANs.. It is difficult to lead a normal life since aspects of daily life are also affected and are closely associated with past traumatic experiences.

As the PAN is divided into different personalities, all of them in a certain way “main”, the person not only dissociates in the negative, but also has multiple personalities everyday. Each one of them can have a name, age, sex, different preferences... It is the type of dissociated and segmented personality that we would find in a person with identity disorder dissociative.

Bibliographic references:

• Boon, S., Steele, K. And van der Hart, O. (2014). Living with traumatic dissociation. Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer
• Frewen, P. & Lanius, L. (2006). Neurobiology of dissociation: unity and disunity of mind-body-brain. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 29,113-128. DOI: 10.1016/j.psc.2005.10.016
• Mosquera, D. & Gonzalez, A. (2014). Borderline Personality Disorder and EMDR.Madrid: Ediciones Pléyades.
• van der Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E. R. S., & Steele, K. (2006). The haunted self: Structural dissociation and the treatment of chronic traumatization. New York: W. W. Norton.
• van der Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E., Steele, K. (2011). The tormented self.2nd. Ed. Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer.
• van der Hart, O., Steele, K., Boon, S., & Brown, P. (1993). The treatment of traumatic memories: Synthesis, realization and integration. Dissociation, 6, 162–180.
• van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma. New York: Viking.