Chapter 15. Dissociation and the “Volcanic Model” (5)

*　I have to mention here that recently Japan Meteorological Agency announced that they no longer use this classification (http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/kishou/know/faq/faq8.html).　According to them, active volcanoes were defined as ones that have erupted within the past 2000 years and are still showing fumarolic activity. Recently, however, it has been gaining an international consensus that active volcanoes should be defined as those which had eruption within the past 10000 years. As for dormant volcanoes, they should be ones that have some past records of eruptions, but are not currently active. Dead volcanoes are those which do not have any past record of eruption. However, recent volcanology enables us to know more about past activities and it was revealed that some volcanoes have regular eruptions every several 10000s of years. Therefore, classification of dormant and dead volcanoes is not considered valid these days.

Therapeutic principles using volcanic metaphor – how to treat “dormant” patients
Now I would like to use this volcanic metaphor to discuss the way DID patients should be treated, especially those who have emotional or violent identities. Active volcanoes are like DID patients whose very emotional identities are now out and show agitation and disorderly behaviors. Dormant volcanoes are a condition where the activity of emotional identities is put on hold. Dead volcanoes are like a situation where emotional identities are no longer considered to emerge and start acting again. In fact, many DID patients are in this dormant stage. Tectonic movement is a metaphor of the patient’s encounter with the past abuser, or any traumatic stress that patients might experience in their life. If patients can live without these factors, their life would be peaceful without disruptions by their emotional identities. However, if patients are unlucky, they might be involved in some traumatic accidents and emotional identities might resume their activities. Dormant DID patients’ lives are like a bet where they never know whether their emotional identities become active in the future or not.