The Core Self: a Developmental Perspective on the Dissociative Disorders

Multiple Personality Disorder and the Dissociative Disorders ar e characterized by the suljective experiences of extreme fragmentation, disorganization, and disintegration . While our current system ofclassifications identifies these experiences as central to dissociation, clinician s have been limited in their ability to describe the nature of these state s specifically. Recent findings from developmental psychology and infan t research provide observational data which describe stages of self development. The careful focus in this workon defining and describing th e domains ofself experience provides a useful framework for studying Dissociative Disorders .