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Soffer-Dudek N. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms and dissociative experiences: Suggested underlying mechanisms and implications for science and practice. Front Psychol 2023; 14:1132800. [PMID: 37051604 PMCID: PMC10084853 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1132800] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2022] [Accepted: 03/03/2023] [Indexed: 03/29/2023] Open
Abstract
A strong and specific link between obsessive-compulsive disorder or symptoms (OCD/S) and a tendency for dissociative experiences (e.g., depersonalization-derealization, absorption and imaginative involvement) cannot be explained by trauma and is poorly understood. The present theoretical formulation proposes five different models conceptualizing the relationship. According to Model 1, dissociative experiences result from OCD/S through inward-focused attention and repetition. According to Model 2, dissociative absorption causally brings about both OCD/S and associated cognitive risk factors, such as thought-action fusion, partly through impoverished sense of agency. The remaining models highlight common underlying causal mechanisms: temporo-parietal abnormalities impairing embodiment and sensory integration (Model 3); sleep alterations causing sleepiness and dreamlike thought or mixed sleep-wake states (Model 4); and a hyperactive, intrusive imagery system with a tendency for pictorial thinking (Model 5). The latter model relates to Maladaptive Daydreaming, a suggested dissociative syndrome with strong ties to the obsessive-compulsive spectrum. These five models point to potential directions for future research, as these theoretical accounts may aid the two fields in interacting with each other, to the benefit of both. Finally, several dissociation-informed paths for further developing clinical intervention in OCD are identified.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nirit Soffer-Dudek
- The Consciousness and Psychopathology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Be’er Sheva, Israel
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2
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Huntjens RJC, Janssen GPJ, Merckelbach H, Lynn SJ. The link between dissociative tendencies and hyperassociativity. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2021; 73:101665. [PMID: 34091386 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2021.101665] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2019] [Revised: 03/22/2021] [Accepted: 05/21/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Anecdotal and research evidence suggests that individuals with dissociative symptoms exhibit hyperassociativity, which might explain several key features of their condition. The aim of our study was to investigate the link between dissociative tendencies and hyperassociativity among college students. METHODS The study (n = 118) entailed various measures of hyperassociativity, measures of dissociative tendencies, depressive experiences, unusual sleep experiences, cognitive failures, and alexithymia. RESULTS We found a positive association between dissociative experiences (i.e., depersonalization) and hyperassociativity specific for associative fluency and associative flexibility tasks (including neutral and valenced material), but not for a remote association task. We also found tentative evidence for cognitive failures and alexithymia explaining the link between hyperassociativity and daytime dissociation and nighttime unusual sleep experiences. LIMITATIONS Limitations include the use of hyperassociation tasks limited to verbal associations vs. imagistic associations, the lack of a measure of trauma history, and a sample limited to college students. CONCLUSION Our study reports a link between depersonalization and hyperassociativity on tasks that allow for free associations across different semantic domains, potentially explained by alexithymia and cognitive failures. This finding may, with replication, open the pathway to applied intervention studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- R J C Huntjens
- Department of Experimental Psychotherapy and Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712, TS, Groningen, the Netherlands.
| | - G P J Janssen
- Department of Experimental Psychotherapy and Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712, TS, Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - H Merckelbach
- Forensic Psychology Section, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
| | - S J Lynn
- Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, 4400 Vestal Pkwy. West, Binghamton, NY, 13902, USA.
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Somer E, Cardeña E, Catelan RF, Soffer-Dudek N. Reality shifting: psychological features of an emergent online daydreaming culture. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 42:1-13. [PMID: 34744401 PMCID: PMC8556810 DOI: 10.1007/s12144-021-02439-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Reality shifting (RS) is a trendy mental activity that emerged abruptly following the flare-up of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and seems to be practiced mainly by members of the post-millennial generation. RS, described as the experience of being able to transcend one's physical confines and visit alternate, mostly fictional, universes, is discussed by many on Internet platforms. One RS forum boasts over 40,000 members and RS clips on some social media platforms have been viewed over 1.7 billion times. The experience of shifting is reportedly facilitated by specific induction methods involving relaxation, concentration of attention, and autosuggestion. Some practitioners report a strong sense of presence in their desired realities, reified by some who believe in the concrete reality of the alternate world they shift to. One of the most popular alternate universes involves environments adopted from the Harry Potter book and film series. We describe the phenomenology of RS as reported online and then compare it to related phenomena such as hypnosis, tulpamancy, dissociation, immersive and maladaptive daydreaming, and lucid dreaming. We propose a theoretical model of interactive factors giving rise to RS, and conclude that it is an important, uninvestigated emerging phenomenon and propose future research directions.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Etzel Cardeña
- Present Address: CERCAP, Department of Psychology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden
| | - Ramiro Figueiredo Catelan
- Present Address: Center for Maladaptive Daydreaming and Emotion Dysregulation Research, Institute of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Konu D, Mckeown B, Turnbull A, Siu Ping Ho N, Karapanagiotidis T, Vanderwal T, McCall C, Tipper SP, Jefferies E, Smallwood J. Exploring patterns of ongoing thought under naturalistic and conventional task-based conditions. Conscious Cogn 2021; 93:103139. [PMID: 34111726 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2020] [Revised: 04/17/2021] [Accepted: 04/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Previous research suggests that patterns of ongoing thought are heterogeneous, varying across situations and individuals. The current study investigated the influence of multiple tasks and affective style on ongoing patterns of thought. We used 9 different tasks and measured ongoing thought using multidimensional experience sampling. A Principal Component Analysis of the experience sampling data revealed four patterns of ongoing thought: episodic social cognition, unpleasant intrusive, concentration and self focus. Linear Mixed Modelling was used to conduct a series of exploratory analyses aimed at examining contextual distributions of these thought patterns. We found that different task contexts reliably evoke different thought patterns. Moreover, intrusive and negative thought pattern expression were influenced by individual affective style (depression level). The data establish the influence of task context and intrinsic features on ongoing thought, highlighting the importance of documenting how thought patterns emerge in cognitive tasks with different requirements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Delali Konu
- Department of Psychology, University of York, UK.
| | | | | | | | | | - Tamara Vanderwal
- Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Canada
| | - Cade McCall
- Department of Psychology, University of York, UK
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Vroegh T, Wiesmann SL, Henschke S, Lange EB. Manual motor reaction while being absorbed into popular music. Conscious Cogn 2021; 89:103088. [PMID: 33636569 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2021.103088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2020] [Revised: 01/21/2021] [Accepted: 01/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
In three experiments, we investigated the behavioral consequences of being absorbed into music on performance in a concurrent task. We tested two competing hypotheses: Based on a cognitive load account, captivation of attention by the music and state absorption might slow down reactions in the decisional task. Alternatively, music could induce spontaneous motor activity, and being absorbed in music might result in a more autonomous, flow-driven behavior with quicker motor reactions. Participants performed a simple, visual, two-alternative forced-choice task while listening to popular musical excerpts. Subsequently, they rated their subjective experience using a short questionnaire. We presented music in four tempo categories (between 80 and 140 BPM) to account for a potential effect of tempo and an interaction between tempo and absorption. In Experiment 1, absorption was related to decreased reaction times (RTs) in the visual task. This effect was small, as expected in this setting, but replicable in Experiment 2. There was no effect of the music's tempo on RTs but a tendency of mind wandering to relate to task performance. After slightly changing the study setting in Experiment 3, flow predicted decreased RTs, but absorption alone - as part of the flow construct - did not predict RTs. To sum up, we demonstrated that being absorbed in music can have the behavioral consequence of speeded manual reactions in specific task contexts, and people seem to integrate the music into an active, flow-driven and therefore enhanced performance. However, shown relations depend on task settings, and a systematic study of context is necessary to understand how induced states and their measurement contribute to the findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thijs Vroegh
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany
| | - Sandro L Wiesmann
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany; Scene Grammar Lab, Department of Psychology, Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany
| | | | - Elke B Lange
- Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt, Germany
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Rosen C, Tufano M, Humpston CS, Chase KA, Jones N, Abramowitz AC, Franco Chakkalakal A, Sharma RP. The Sensory and Perceptual Scaffolding of Absorption, Inner Speech, and Self in Psychosis. Front Psychiatry 2021; 12:649808. [PMID: 34045979 PMCID: PMC8145281 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.649808] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2021] [Accepted: 04/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
This study examines the interconnectedness between absorption, inner speech, self, and psychopathology. Absorption involves an intense focus and immersion in mental imagery, sensory/perceptual stimuli, or vivid imagination that involves decreased self-awareness and alterations in consciousness. In psychosis, the dissolution and permeability in the demarcation between self and one's sensory experiences and perceptions, and also between self-other and/or inter-object boundaries alter one's sense of self. Thus, as the individual integrates these changes new "meaning making" or understanding evolves as part of an ongoing inner dialogue and dialogue with others. This study consisted of 117 participants: 81 participants with psychosis and 36 controls. We first conducted a bivariate correlation to elucidate the relationship between absorption and inner speech. We next conducted hierarchical multiple regressions to examine the effect of absorption and inner speech to predict psychopathology. Lastly, we conducted a network analysis and applied extended Bayesian Information Criterion to select the best model. We showed that in both the control and psychosis group dialogic and emotional/motivational types of inner speech were strongly associated with absorption subscales, apart from the aesthetic subscale in the control group which was not significant, while in psychosis, condensed inner speech was uniquely associated with increased imaginative involvement. In psychosis, we also demonstrated that altered consciousness, dialogic, and emotional/motivational inner speech all predicted positive symptoms. In terms of network associations, imaginative involvement was the most central, influential, and most highly predictive node in the model from which all other nodes related to inner speech and psychopathology are connected. This study shows a strong interrelatedness between absorption, inner speech and psychosis thus identifying potentially fertile ground for future research and directions, particularly in the exploration into the underlying construct of imaginative involvement in psychotic symptoms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cherise Rosen
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Michele Tufano
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Clara S Humpston
- School of Psychology, Institute for Mental Health, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom
| | - Kayla A Chase
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | - Nev Jones
- Department of Psychiatry, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, United States
| | - Amy C Abramowitz
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
| | | | - Rajiv P Sharma
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
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Bregman-Hai N, Kessler Y, Soffer-Dudek N. Who wrote that? Automaticity and reduced sense of agency in individuals prone to dissociative absorption. Conscious Cogn 2019; 78:102861. [PMID: 31887532 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.102861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/30/2019] [Revised: 12/08/2019] [Accepted: 12/09/2019] [Indexed: 12/29/2022]
Abstract
Dissociative absorption (DA) is a tendency to become completely immersed in a stimulus while neglecting to attend to one's surroundings. Theoretically, DA implies automatic functioning in areas that are outside the focus of attention. This study examined whether high absorbers indeed act more automatically, i.e., with decreased meta-consciousness for, and therefore poor memory of, their own actions, along with reduced sense of agency (SoA). High and low absorbers (N = 63) performed three DA-promoting tasks: choice-reaction time (CRT), Tetris, and free writing. Participants were tested on memory of task details and self-reported their state SoA. As hypothesized, trait DA was correlated with impaired autobiographical memory for self-generated writing. However, DA was not related to episodic memory disruptions in externally-generated content tasks (Tetris, CRT). In most tasks, DA was associated with decreased SoA. Absorbers' specific difficulty in identifying self-generated content suggests that their memory failures stem from reduced accessibility to self-actions and intentions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noa Bregman-Hai
- The Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel.
| | - Yoav Kessler
- The Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel; Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
| | - Nirit Soffer-Dudek
- The Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva 8410501, Israel.
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Lynn SJ, Maxwell R, Merckelbach H, Lilienfeld SO, Kloet DVHVD, Miskovic V. Dissociation and its disorders: Competing models, future directions, and a way forward. Clin Psychol Rev 2019; 73:101755. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2019.101755] [Citation(s) in RCA: 37] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2019] [Revised: 06/20/2019] [Accepted: 07/15/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
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