Up: [[Trauma]] Course: Psychology of Early Trauma - Donald Kalsched for Jung on Hudson Created: 2023-07-23 Jung was one of the first to say that a traumatized child/person dissociates. By that he meant that when something is really painful and we don’t want to see it, our defences step in and pretend it didn’t happen. Dissociation is a kind of psychological anaesthesia. We simply don’t have access to a whole bunch of memories. In *The Language of Emotions*, Karla McLaren talks about remembering almost nothing of her childhood and only sketchy memories of high school and beyond. She says she wasn’t really there. Dissociation involves identifying with your defence and, as a result, not being able to see it. Donald Kalsched adds that our defences chop up experience and distribute it to different parts of our body and mind so that we don’t have to experience it as a whole. But to be real, we need to feel the whole experience. While dissociation isn’t healthy, it does have a protective purpose. Kalsched calls dissociation a self-care system because it protects the core of us from soul murder. When there is painful feeling that is simply too much to bear, the vital alive child is put into an inner sanctum for safekeeping. Karla warns against spiritual practices that encourage dissociation, such as meditation. She believes the need is for focused awareness and strong grounding in order to stay integrated.