van der Hart’s Theory of Structural Dissociation: what is it and what does it explain?

A summary of Onno van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation, focusing on trauma.

Traumatic events can severely damage our personality. Depending on the type of event and how long one is a victim, trauma can cause the personality to split into different structures.

On the one hand there is the most functional structure, the one that most resembles what a "normal" person would be, while the other lives in the traumatic event, is paralyzed and frozen, it can neither flee nor fight against what it experienced, so it chooses to dissociate.

The structural dissociation theory of van der Hart is a model that explains how this process of personality splitting occurs. In the following we will see in more detail how this happens, what personality structures are involved and what degrees of impairment there may be.

What is van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation?

The theory of structural dissociation of the personality of van der Hart is a theoretical model that tries to explain how, after the experience of a traumatic event, the personality of the person who has lived through it splits into several rigid and closed structures between them. This theory has been used to explain different behavioral and personality phenomena associated with disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder and dissociative identity disorder.

Before delving into the model, we must first understand what is meant by "dissociation" in both psychiatry and clinical psychology. Defining this idea is somewhat complex, but what we can emphasize is that it is a defense mechanism that people sometimes use, especially in the face of a highly disturbing and traumatic event, and whose consequences on the structure and coherence of personality can be very varied.

Onno van der Hart, together with his collaborators, defines dissociation as the splitting of the personality or of consciousness. It could be understood as how the behavioral and personality traits of a person end up being transformed into different parts, as if the same individual were made up of several persons. According to the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) dissociation can be understood as the disconnection or lack of connection between elements of the personality.

But now that we have talked about the dissociation of the personality, we must understand what is understood by personality itself, especially the integrated or "healthy" personality. Personality is understood within the theory of structural dissociation as a set of systems which, in turn, each of them is made up of a set of interrelated elements that create a coherent and integrated whole. This whole is the personality of the individual, those traits that define him and make him behave in one way or another in an infinite number of situations.

The two personality systems

Within this model it is argued that personality works with two main systems. One of them is the system in charge of approaching pleasant, attractive and ultimately appetitive stimuli for the individual.We can also encourage behaviors that bring us closer to objects, people or pleasurable situations, such as eating to nourish ourselves, talking with friends, meditating to relax...

On the other side we have the system in charge of protecting the organism from threats and unpleasant situations.. This system is based on avoidance or flight, avoiding those situations perceived as dangerous or facing aggressive and disruptive elements in order to emerge victorious from the situation. It makes us run away from a mugger or confront someone who has offended us. By performing confrontational or avoidance behaviors we try to keep our personality structure intact.

Both systems are considered action systems and have a psychobiological component. Each of them is prone to act innately in certain situations and, thus, to achieve particular goals. As we have just mentioned, the former is responsible for bringing us closer to that which benefits us, while the latter protects us from that which harms us.

It should be said that, although there are certain behaviors that are exclusive to one system or the other, others can be encompassed in both systems. For example, eating in itself is a Biological need, something that satisfies us and gives us pleasure, i.e., it would be a system-specific activity in search of pleasurable sensations. On the other hand, eating can also be a way of coping with negative emotions, trying to fill those painful feelings with food.

In short, both systems act and are part of our personality, helping us to act, think, feel and perceive in multiple ways. The first system helps us to adapt by seeking pleasant sensations, while the other system protects us from that which could harm us physically and psychologically.. Both systems are used on a daily basis at different times, but almost never simultaneously. Either we approach a stimulus to feel pleasure or we face and/or flee from another to avoid pain.

• You may be interested in, "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

Personality breakdown

So what happens when we need to activate both action systems to survive? What happens when they are activated simultaneously for a long time? Well, what happens is that there is a problem, because the personality becomes very unstable. the personality becomes very unstable, it can fragment, splitting the hitherto coherent personality structure and entering into a situation of disintegration. and entering into a situation of dissociation.

Before going further into the different dissociative personality structures proposed in Van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation, let us take a case presented by him in collaboration with Kathy Steele and Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis in their 2008 book "The Tormented Self". In this book they expose the rather interesting, curious and sad case of the former Miss America Marilyn van Derburwho in her early childhood was a victim of sexual abuse.

Van Derbur herself spoke of feeling that her personality was split in two, as if she were really two people sharing the same body: the girl by day and the girl by night. The day girl was a withdrawn young woman focused on what she had to do during the day: getting her schooling and being a normal child. This girl was totally detached from what was happening to the night girl, feeling amnesia. On the other hand, the girl at night was the one who endured the sexual abuse and only concentrated on defending herself, on getting through the ordeal.

Let's use this same example but talking about a hypothetical girl. A normal girl cannot emerge mentally stable from a situation of sexual abuse. The same person who is sexually abused at night and has to live a normal life during the day is in too tense a situation to move forward in one piece, since it is too difficult and complex a situation for her psyche to remain intact.

When she receives abuse the second system is activated, i.e., the avoidance and fight system. The normal thing would be to try to fight or run away from the situation, but the truth is that such a young child can do neither. On the one hand, she cannot confront her sexual abuser, an adult much older than herself and, on the other hand, she cannot run away from him since, despite hurting her, he is also the one who takes care of her, feeds her and gives her shelter, especially if we are talking about father-daughter sexual abuse.

As the defense system cannot work properly, and much less in a girl who does not have the independence or linguistic capacity to denounce the facts, as she can neither flee nor fight, she has to look for another way: dissociation. The girl freezes, moves her mind away from consciousness and, since she cannot flee physically, she flees mentally. Dissociating makes her suffer as little as possible.

After experiencing this, the child cannot go about her daily life normally and defend herself at the same time. As we have said, it is not possible to have both systems of action activated.The child is trying to make her life as pleasant as possible while trying to defend herself from what is happening to her. In the end both systems separate and become two independent personality structures. Returning to Van Derbur's case, during the day the pleasure system is activated, trying to be normal, while at night the defense system is activated, which chooses to "freeze" when it feels it can do nothing to combat the abuses.

This particular example of division of the action systems is a clear case of structural dissociation of the personality. In the absence of cohesion, coordination and integration between the two systems that form the basis of a person's personality, i.e., his system of attractive stimuli and his system of avoidance and flight from threatening stimuli. This example of dissociation that we have just seen is what happens in disorders such as complex post-traumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD).

The dissociative parts of the personality

Within van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation, there are two types of dissociative parts of the personality: the apparently normal personality (ANP) and the emotional personality (EP). two types of dissociative parts of the personality: the apparently normal personality (ANP) and the emotional personality (EP)..

The Apparently Normal Personality (ANP)

The ANP is the part of a person's personality that seeks to go on with his or her seeks to go about his or her daily life in the most normal and functional way possible.. It is driven by the action system that seeks adaptation, i.e., that focuses on attractive stimuli and approaches them. At the same time, it is the part that avoids remembering traumatic events since, if it were to do so frequently and relive them in the form of flashbacks, it would be impossible to lead a normal life, since the person would be constantly paralyzed.

Emotional Personality (EP)

The EP is the part of the personality that is fixed at the moment of traumatization and is associated with the avoidance system of threatening stimuli.. It is obsessed with avoiding the unpleasantness, of not experiencing it again. A trait associated with EP in a person who has suffered sexual abuse would be to be hypervigilant, to flee or fight in a situation that reminds him/her of what he/she experienced, even if it seems to have nothing to do with it.

The NAP and the EP are closed and rigid structures with respect to each other. There are emotions in both parts, not only in the EP, and it should be emphasized that structural dissociation can include multiple divisions of both types, that is to say, that a person does not necessarily have only one PAN and one EP, that is to say, two personalities, speaking somewhat colloquially. In healthy people who have not suffered any trauma these two structures will be together and associated.

The three types of structural dissociation

There are several factors that cause structural dissociation of the personality. Among them are experiences of maltreatment, sexual abuse and child neglect.. In addition, early childhood traumatization and the prolongation of the event increases the severity of the picture. Dissociation is a defense mechanism used to protect oneself and to be able to lead a daily life in the best possible way in the face of traumatizing events.

Within Van der Hart's theory of structural dissociation we can identify up to three types of structural dissociation, that is, three degrees of severity in which the personality of an individual can fragment into different structures.

Primary structural dissociation

Primary structural dissociation is the simplest and most basic of the model and arises from a traumatic experience that is, as far as possible, of moderate severity.. The personality of the individual is divided into a single NAP and a single EP, i.e. there are only two personality structures isolated from each other.

The NAP takes the leading role, being what we would understand as the desirable personality of the individual, while the EP has not been fully elaborated. That is to say, the individual has a functional personality that prevails in his daily life but, sometimes, unpleasant memories associated with the trauma emerge.

This type of dissociation would be what we would find in disorders such as simple PTSD, acute stress disorder and somatization.

2. Secondary structural dissociation

Secondary structural dissociation implies a higher degree of complexity. In this case we are talking about cases in which the traumatic event has been so overwhelming and prolonged that its effect has been more intense on the personality structure.. The EP splits into several parts, while the NAP remains an integral entity and functions as the main personality. The EP splits into several structures because it has not been able to integrate different forms of defense such as fight, flight, paralysis and submission.

This type of structural dissociation is typical of people with BPD and complex PTSD.

3. Tertiary structural dissociation

Tertiary structural dissociation is the most severe of all. In this case, not only EPs and ANPs are separated from each other, but we are also talking about several EPs and several ANPs.. It is difficult to lead a normal life since aspects of daily life are also affected and are strongly associated with past traumatic experiences.

As the PAN is divided into different personalities, all of them in a certain way "main", the person is not only dissociated in the negative, but also has multiple daily personalities. Each of them may have a different name, age, sex, preferences... This is the type of dissociated and segmented personality that we would find in a person with dissociative identity disorder.

Bibliographical references:

• Boon, S., Steele, K. And van der Hart,O. (2014). Living with traumatic dissociation. Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer
• Frewen,P. & Lanius, L. (2006).Neurobiology of dissociation: mind-body-brain unity and disunity.Psychiatric Clinics of North America,29,113-128. DOI:10.1016/j.psc.2005.10.016
• Mosquera,D. & Gonzalez,A. (2014). Borderline Personality Disorder and EMDR.Madrid: Ediciones Pléyades.
• van der Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E. R. S., & Steele, K.(2006).The haunted self: Structural dissociation and the treatment of chronic traumatization. NewYork: W. W. Norton.
• van der Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E., Steele, K. (2011). El yo atormentado.2ª. Ed.Bilbao: Desclée de Brouwer.
• van der Hart, O., Steele, K., Boon, S.,& Brown, P.(1993). The treatment of traumatic memories: Synthesis, realization and integration. Dissociation, 6, 162–180.
• van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score: brain, mind and body in the healing of trauma. New York: Viking.