# dissociation (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover dissociation. Page: Feed: --- ## [Trauma and Memory: Why the Past Can Feel Present](https://traumatheory.com/trauma-and-memory/) _2026-08-06 · Charles Alford · About trauma_ Trauma changes the way people remember. Most memories feel like they belong to the past. We may feel sadness, anger, regret, or longing when we remember them, but we usually know they are over. Traumatic memory can feel different. It can return with the force of something happening now. This is why trauma and memory \[…\] The post Trauma and Memory: Why the Past Can Feel Present first appeared on… ## [PTSD and Dissociation: Why Trauma Can Make the Mind Feel Divided](https://traumatheory.com/ptsd-and-dissociation/) _2026-07-24 · Charles Alford · About trauma_ PTSD and dissociation are often connected. Many people with trauma feel fear, panic, or painful memories. Others feel numb, distant, or cut off from themselves. Some people feel both at different times. This can be confusing. A person may know something terrible happened. But they may also feel separated from the memory. They may remember \[…\] The post PTSD and Dissociation: Why Trauma Can Make the… ## [Trauma Theory and PTSD: How Trauma Affects Memory, Fear, and Meaning](https://traumatheory.com/trauma-theory-and-ptsd/) _2026-07-24 · Charles Alford · About trauma_ PTSD is often described as a disorder that begins after trauma. That is true, but it does not explain the whole experience. PTSD is not only about a terrible event. It is also about how that event continues to affect memory, fear, the body, relationships, and meaning. This is why trauma theory is helpful. Trauma \[…\] The post Trauma Theory and PTSD: How Trauma Affects Memory, Fear, and Meaning… ## [What Is Trauma Theory? Meaning, PTSD, Memory, Literature, and Psychoanalysis](https://traumatheory.com/what-is-trauma-theory/) _2026-07-07 · Charles Alford · About trauma_ Trauma is one of the most used words of our time. People use it to describe war, abuse, loss, neglect, racism, illness, family pain, and many other forms of suffering. But trauma is not only about what happened. It is also about what the event does to a person’s mind, body, memory, relationships, and sense \[…\] The post What Is Trauma Theory? Meaning, PTSD, Memory, Literature, and Psychoanalysis… ## [Suddenly I’m Old and Death Approaches](https://traumatheory.com/suddenly-im-old-and-death/) _2026-04-29 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ Note to my readers: I’m broadening the focus of this blog to include aspects of trauma less directly associated with the theory of trauma, aspects not usually described as traumatic. However, in this case I can assure you that old age is plenty traumatic. Suddenly I’m Old and Death Approaches I’m seventy-nine years old, soon \[…\] The post Suddenly I’m Old and Death Approaches first appeared on… ## [Suicide: Why Did My Friend Kill Himself? Why Does Anyone?](https://traumatheory.com/suicide/) _2026-02-07 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ Why Did My Friend Kill Himself? Why Does Anyone? While my approach to suicide is not from the perspective of trauma theory per se, suicide is plenty traumatic for everyone involved. Many who remain will suffer from PTSD. I have been thinking and posting about trauma for almost a decade now. It’s time to broaden \[…\] The post Suicide: Why Did My Friend Kill Himself? Why Does Anyone? first appeared… ## [PTSD and the death drive](https://traumatheory.com/ptsd-and-death-drive/) _2025-03-31 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ Freud’s speculations about the death drive (Todestrieb) are no longer accepted by most psychoanalysts. /1/ Yet, Freud’s thoughts about the death drive are worth considering from the perspective of trauma theory, since Freud regarded the inability of the traumatized to let their trauma pass into memory as the strongest evidence in favor of the death \[…\] The post PTSD and the death drive first… ## [Aftermath, by Preti Taneja: trauma is not on the page](https://traumatheory.com/aftermath-preti-taneja/) _2025-01-21 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ Aftermath I’ve rarely devoted a post to criticizing one book. But there are aspects of Aftermath that highlight all that’s wrong with the adoption of trauma theory by literary critics, a recurring theme of this blog. What makes Aftermath different is that it is engaged with an actual trauma. Instead of using trauma theory to \[…\] The post Aftermath, by Preti Taneja: trauma is not on the page first… ## [Peter Levine goes further than Bessel van der Kolk on the importance of body memory](https://traumatheory.com/peter-levine-on-body-memory/) _2025-01-21 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ Peter Levine goes further than Bessel van der Kolk on the importance of body memory. Peter Levine’s work on body memory of trauma has a devoted following. His is a more practical, methodical, and focused version of Bessel van der Kolk’s speculations about trauma’s embeddedness in the body. Van der Kolk wrote the forward to \[…\] The post Peter Levine goes further than Bessel van der Kolk on the… ## [Literary theory is not trauma theory](https://traumatheory.com/literary-theory-and-trauma-theory/) _2025-01-21 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ Literary theory is not trauma theory. It may come as a surprise to some, but trauma theory has become a leading analytic framework through which to analyze literary texts. Of course, literary theorists can and should use any framework they find useful. The problem is the confusion that has developed between literary trauma and psychic \[…\] The post Literary theory is not trauma theory first… ## [Snapshot Showdown on Google Play (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/Ub5rQk4fcuBf) _2025-01-21 · **Sponsored**_ Available on Google Play for Android devices. ## [We know what good depression treatment looks like. You probably won’t get it.](https://traumatheory.com/good-depression-treatment/) _2025-01-21 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ We know what good depression treatment looks like. You probably won’t get it. Approximately half of people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) also suffer from Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) (Flory). That is my justification for treating depression in a blog primarily devoted to PTSD. Depression usually follows some of the earliest symptoms, such as anxiety \[…\] The post We know what good… ## [A surprisingly good article on the social function of Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score: We’re all victims now](https://traumatheory.com/why-van-der-kolk-so-influential/) _2025-01-21 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ “Tell Me Why It Hurts: How Bessel van der Kolk’s Once-Controversial Theory of Trauma Became the Dominant Way We Make Sense of Our Lives,” is a strikingly good article on the appeal of The Body Keeps the Score (New York Magazine, July 31, 2023). It’s not long, and you can read it for yourself (the \[…\] The post A surprisingly good article on the social function of Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body… ## [People come here to die: Winnicott and the the trauma of old age](https://traumatheory.com/people-come-here-to-die/) _2025-01-21 · calford@umd.edu · About trauma_ People come here to die: Winnicott and the the trauma of old age This essay draws on my experience with a continuing care retirement community (CCRC). It is an essay on trauma–the trauma of old age and impending death. The CCRC serves as what D. W. Winnicott calls a transitional object. Only in the case \[…\] The post People come here to die: Winnicott and the the trauma of old age first appeared on…