n foundation for hypnosis and certain forms of psychological disturbance is Hilgard (1977) who developed neodissociation theory. While there are variants of this model, Hilgard's perspective (as well as other neodissociative theories) holds that dissociation is a normal property of the human mind that allows for both positive and negative consequences.
For example, it appears to be some sort of dissociative process that allows for people to engage in a number of automatic functions such as typing, driving a car, etc. However, Hilgard states that when this property of mind is employed to serve psychopathological needs, psychological disturbances such as multiple personality disorder and hysterical fugues will develop.
Hilgard's theory has been termed "neodissociation theory" because while it has commonalities with Freudian notions of dissociation, there is a critical difference. According to Freud (1893), the dissociative response was a defensive reaction to trauma. Neodissociation states that the reaction can be used a
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