Dissociation Of Identity

Splitting and Dissociation In Searching For Identity
Identity, which helps people understand themselves better and the world around them, plays a vital role in either sociological or psychological aspects of their lives. Living in the world with freedom, information, and opportunities, people seem to have more choices and ways of finding themselves than any previous generations. However, confusions, anxieties, and fears then followed with the search for their identities. In her essay, “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedoms,” Leslie Bell talks about the confusion about relationships and desires that some American twenty-something young women are struggling with when they have more sexual freedoms. …show more content…
When people are aware of what they want and what is going on around them, their abilities to control their lives are increased. The choice of splitting and dissociation is no longer a threat to their lives; instead, it serves as a coping mechanism to protect and develop themselves from past experiences. In Bell’s essay, Jayanthi split herself from being “good” to “bad” because she wanted a different life from her traditional family and a crazy history about herself. Bell argues that her choice of being a bad girl “allowed Jayanthi to control her identity, rather than having it controlled by either her family or the men she encountered” (Bell 34). When Jayanthi made the choice of splitting herself to be a bad girl, she knew that would be the right decision for her because she was aware of her situation and who she wanted to be. Although cultural notions brought her some purposes, the awareness of herself has given her both the drive to control her life and the urgency of splitting to be a bad girl. The choice she made liberated her from past experiences and became another way to identify her. In a similar way, Stout proves this idea by stating that the awareness of dissociation prevents people being hurt from past experiences and helps them better control their lives. Stout gives an example of Julia, who had lived in a house of horrors. She had a …show more content…
People always split or dissociate themselves consciously or unconsciously. On the one hand, the awareness of splitting and dissociation help people control their lives and prevent them being hurt from those childhood and adulthood traumas, past experiences, and memories in order to let them forget those unbearable pain and stress. On the other hand, splitting or dissociation can be a very harmful weapon that weakens the psyche of people themselves because they limit people’s perceptions about the real world, change the situation they should have to face, and drift them from intimate relationships. However, either good or bad side of dissociation and splitting depends on people. People are unconscious about their past because they did not notice those experiences very much so that they do not know how efficient their past lives were. However, the awareness of splitting and dissociation can be a powerful tool to progress lives when people have ideas about how to take a balance. Just like Bell argues that American twenty-something women should try to be like a whole person rather than splitting themselves into either “good” or “bad.” Everyone has bad memories and psychological problems he or she has to face, more or less. As long as people know and understand what is going on around them and what their problems are, they are able to overcome their puzzles, making sense of their