Defining Psychosis, Trauma, and Dissociation: Historical and Contemporary Conceptions

This chapter reviews the etymology and historical uses of the terms psychosis, trauma, and dissociation, emphasizing current popular uses. Severe forms of psychological and behavioural dysfunction have been recognized since ancient times, leading to the development of concepts such as 'insanity', 'mania', and 'dementia'. For more than three centuries, the term trauma, derived from the Greek word for 'wound', has been used to describe physical wounds or bodily injuries. In nineteenth‐century French psychiatry, dissociation referred to a division or compartmentalization of consciousness or personality. There are significant differences in abuse histories and scores on dissociation measures between depersonalization disorder (DPD), characterized by chronic depersonalization and derealization (without evidence of a division of personality) and other dissociative disorders. Psychosis is the only one of the three terms which has always, and only, been applied to psychopathology and yet it is perhaps the most in need of rehabilitation.