Chapter 2. History of Dissociation (1) Psychoanalytical Viewpoint (7)

And it was what has happened to Freud and Janet more than a century ago. Freud was deeply affected by Charcot’s quite impressive demonstration of hysterical patients at the Salpetrière Hospital. Janet took interest in dissociative pathology through a case that he worked with, and then was invited by Charcot to the Salpetrière.
Freud and Janet, two grounding fathers of dynamic psychiatry, both influenced by dissociative pathology had, in fact, quite different experiences. Their views grew further apart since then. For Freud, his experiences with dissociative patient did not get integrated into his system of psychoanalytic theories based on the mechanism of repression. On the other hand, Janet discussed in detail the mechanism of dissociation in his works.
Freud’s theory had a big success in the early and mid part of the last century. On the other hand Janet’s theory was overshadowed by the psychoanalysis for a long time, and was followed by only a small number of scholars until recent establishment of “Pierre Janet institute”. Curiously the decline of analytic theory coincided with the revival of Janet’s theory. One of the most sophisticated theories of dissociation presented currently, .i.e., “Structural Dissociation Theory”(van der Hart, et al. 2006) owes its theoretical basis to Janet’ works a century ago. Can the theory of dissociation explain human mind on a level deeper and more in detail than what psychoanalysis claims that it does? I would like to further discuss this topic.
Just while ago I mentioned that there are the “credulous” and the “incredulous” camps of people, but the story is a little more complicated. Among the “credulous” camp of people, there are two types. Those who find the patients’ somatic symptoms more realistic, and those who are more affected and attracted by psychological symptoms. The former people take interest in dramatic physical symptoms, such as convulsion, sensory loss, aphasia and motor paralysis. They find it very curious that these symptoms can sometimes appear and disappear by the hypnotic suggestions. The latter group of people find the presence of “alter” personality most curious, to the point of believing that it holds a key to the understanding of human mind.