The Truth about Trauma and Dissociation

The Truth about Trauma and Dissociation is a relational guide which empowers the reader to understand traumatic experience and its aftermath without a loss of feelings. It introduces the key concepts of trauma and dissociation with an easy-to understand breakdown of conditions and themes for therapy. This is a compelling and sensitive introduction, and may well be Sinason’s most significant publication to date.

Preface

1. The coronavirus and other plagues
2. An overview
3. What is trauma?
4. A bunch of fives: A mathematical trauma education!
5. Definitions: Further definitions for curiosity and clarity
6. Dissociative identity disorder
7. 7 War and atrocity
8. A further cornucopia of concepts
9. An ending that cannot conclude

References
Index

Dr Valerie Sinason is a poet, writer, child psychotherapist, and adult psychoanalyst. A member of the Association of Child Psychotherapists and of the British Psychoanalytical Society, she helped to pioneer the field of disability psychotherapy and served as founding President of the Institute of Psychotherapy and Disability.  She is also the founder of the Clinic for Dissociative Studies in London, and has worked extensively with severely traumatised individuals suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Previously, she has worked as a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic, the Portman Clinic, the Anna Freud Centre, and St. George’s Hospital Medical School in the University of London. Her many books include Mental Handicap and the Human Condition: New Approaches from the Tavistock, now in its second edition.

• By (author) Valerie Sinason

'In a lively and conversational tone of voice, Valerie manages to provide a succinct yet rich overview of two related psychotherapeutic concepts: trauma and dissociation. [...] Woven throughout the book are quotes from the arts, literature and poetry, which Valerie beautifully uses to illuminate the often unspeakable and timeless nature of trauma and dissociation. This adds an emotional experiential depth to her insightful commentary for the reader.'

— Letticia Banton, TR Together, 2024

'This amazing little book helps each of us to speak and understand the unspeakable. Are we brave enough to know the truth in this dangerous but lifegiving journey? The book warns and encourages us that knowing can retraumatise at each life stage but also make us strong. Enjoy the clarity and beauty of Valerie’s whistle-stop tour of trauma and dissociation.'

— Baroness Hollins, Emeritus Professor, University of London; Emeritus President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists

'Valerie Sinason ventures into troubled emotional spaces to hear what we don’t know and, often, don’t wish to know. In plain language she enables us to see forms of cruelty and the psychic consequences which lead to the extreme splitting of psyches into dissociated and multiple self-states … A book of interest to clinicians and a much wider audience.'

— Dr Susie Orbach, Psychoanalyst and founder of The Women’s Therapy Centre, London, and author of Fat is a Feminist Issue, The Impossibility of Sex, and Bodies

'This is a small but powerful and thought-provoking book written by a leader in the field of dissociative studies. [...] Sinason writes at her best, with evocatively worded phrases and powerful metaphors. [...] And the device of starting and ending with the same short poem was brilliant, and one of the ways that Sinason tried to actively engage her readers. She also writes with a deeply humane voice—non-judgemental, caring, and compassionate to us when we cannot bear to know or cannot help some-one.'

— Susan Wright