Chapter 4. Why does Dissociation Occur ? (2)

Two ways to respond to the basic question
When we encounter some curious phenomenon and ask why it happens, there are two main ways to answer it. One is teleological. It states the purpose it fulfills, benefit it brings, etc. The other is descriptive. It explains in detail the process of the phenomenon in order to satisfy our curiosity.
Let us take an example of a boil on your skin. The skin is reddish, swollen and painful. If we ask why it happens, the former type of answer would be something like this:“Because in this way it is fighting with any pathogen”. The latter type of answer might be as follows: in the area, the inflammatory substances are released, and this results in local vascular enlargement, increased blood flow and exudates, and partial tissue damage with a release of prostaglandin which induces pain sensation. The former is teleological, intuitive and simple, but it might be difficult to prove that it is accurate. (The boil might serve something other than fighting with germs, that we do not know of yet, for example.) The latter describes in detail the inflammatory process with the use of technical terms to elucidate what happens.
If we apply this logic to the issue of dissociation, the former type of answer is to consider dissociation as one of the defense mechanisms. It is to isolate a traumatic and harmful experience from the consciousness in order to avoid emotional catastrophe. The latter answer involves many anatomical, neurophysiological descriptions of the dissociative processes. The latter relies heavily on the neuroimaging study and other technological development to make it possible.
1. Teleological understanding:dissociation as a defense
Understanding dissociation as a defense mechanism can be one of the most convincing ways of answering to the basic question: why does dissociation occur? It does not necessarily mean that it is an accurate answer but at least it makes sense to those who have the question.