Most of our understanding of, and interventions with, trauma are focused on past traumas perpetrated by individuals. Because of this individualistic-based paradigm, most research on oppression adopts an interpersonal violence framework, ignoring the other identity-based variables involved in intergroup trauma. In this study, we test a new paradigm of oppression as perpetration of trauma between groups, including the variables of will to survive and related coping strategies. The new model assumes that collective trauma of oppression brings to the individual’s focus his or her collective identity and triggers identity annihilation and subjugation anxiety that drive mental health distress. On the other hand, will to survive engenders various strategies, which serve to address oppression challenges and to cope with such distress. We tested the model on a sample of 438 Palestinian adolescents (aged 12 to 19 years; 45.4% females) from the West Bank. We measured life traumas—including oppression, poverty, and will to survive—as independent variables, and identity salience, annihilation anxiety, and coping strategies as mediating variables. We measured posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), complex PTSD, depression, and physical health as outcome variables. Results of path analysis confirmed the general model and indicated that religious coping, political ideology, and social support contributed to reducing mental distress, with religiosity as the strongest predictor, which may explain the electoral success of Islamists in the Palestinian election of 2006 and elections following the Arab Spring. The implications of the results for conflict resolution and in clinical interventions with intergroup trauma victims are discussed.

Dissociative symptoms, first-rank symptoms of schizophrenia, and delusions were assessed in 40 schizophrenia patients and 40 dissociative identity disorder (DID) patients with the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). Schizophrenia patients were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-IV Axis I Disorders; DID patients were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders-Revised. DID patients obtained significantly (a) higher dissociation scores; (b) higher passive-influence scores (first-rank symptoms); and (c) higher scores on scales that measure child voices, angry voices, persecutory voices, voices arguing, and voices commenting. Schizophrenia patients obtained significantly higher delusion scores than did DID patients. What is odd is that the dissociation scores of schizophrenia patients were unrelated to their reports of childhood maltreatment. Multiple regression analyses indicated that 81% of the variance in DID patients' dissociation scores was predicted by the MID's Ego-Alien Experiences Scale, whereas 92% of the variance in schizophrenia patients' dissociation scores was predicted by the MID's Voices Scale. We propose that schizophrenia patients' responses to the MID do not index the same pathology as do the responses of DID patients. We argue that neither phenomenological definitions of dissociation nor the current generation of dissociation instruments (which are uniformly phenomenological in nature) can distinguish between the dissociative phenomena of DID and what we suspect are just the dissociation-like phenomena of schizophrenia.

BackgroundThis study investigates the outcome of crisis intervention for chronic post traumatic disorders with a model based on the theory that such crises manifest trauma in the present. The sufferer's behavior is in response to the current perception of dependency and entrapment in a mistrusted relationship. The mechanism of disorder is the sufferer's activity, which aims to either prove or disprove the perception of entrapment, but, instead, elicits more semblances of it in a circular manner. Patients have reasons to keep such activity private from therapy and are barely aware of it as the source of their symptoms.MethodsThe hypothesis is that the experimental intervention will reduce symptoms broadly within 8 to 24 h from initiation of treatment, compared to treatment as usual. The experimental intervention sidesteps other symptoms to engage patients in testing the trustworthiness of the troubled relationship with closure, thus ending the circularity of their own ways. The study compares 32 experimental subjects with 26 controls at similar crisis stabilization units.ResultsThe results of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) supported the hypothesis (both in total score and for four of five subscales), as did results with Client Observation, a pilot instrument designed specifically for the circular behavior targeted by the experimental intervention. Results were mostly non-significant from two instruments of patient self-observation, which provided retrospective pretreatment scores.ConclusionsThe discussion envisions further steps to ascertain that this broad reduction of symptoms ensues from the singular correction that distinguishes the experimental intervention.Trial registrationProtocol Registration System NCT00269139. The PRS URL is https://register.clinicaltrials.gov

A total of 75 patients were diagnosed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders-Revised as having dissociative identity disorder (DID), and 100 patients were diagnosed with the Structured Interview for DSM-IV Personality as having borderline personality disorder (BPD). Both groups were administered the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). DID patients had significantly higher MID scores than BPD patients, different distributions of MID scores, and different MID subscale profiles in 3 ranges of MID scores (0-15, 15-30, 30-45). The core MID symptoms-exhibited at all ranges of MID scores-for DID patients (the presence of alters, identity confusion, and memory problems) and BPD patients (flashbacks, identity confusion, and memory problems) were ostensibly similar but were considered to be mostly produced by different underlying processes. Multiple regression analyses showed that the core MID symptoms of DID patients had different predictors than did the core MID symptoms of BPD patients. Alter identities seemed to generate most-but not all-dissociative phenomena in DID patients, whereas only the 24% highest scoring BPD patients (MID ≥45) seemed to manifest alter-driven dissociative experiences. Most BPD dissociative experiences appeared to be due to 5 other mechanisms: (a) BPD-specific, stress-driven, rapid shifts of self-state; (b and c) nondefensive disruptions of the framework of perceptual organization with or without an accompanying BPD-specific, dissociation-like disintegration of affective/neurocognitive functioning; (d) a defensive distancing or detachment from distress (i.e., simple depersonalization); and (e) Allen, Console, and Lewis's (1999) severe absorptive detachment.