dissociation

innovator in the field of

post-marxism

is not pathogenic, but a human capacity to dissociate one's awareness from experiences... it is a fundamental capacity without which we would be swamped by impressions, sensations and experiences.

Echoing Sartre's distinction between a prereflective and a reflective consciousness, Ernesto Spinelli (1994: 154: 154 ff.) proposes a theory of 'dissociation' to account for the phenomena which the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious tries to explain. Spinelli bases his ideas on Braude's (1991) philosophical explora tions of multiple personality and Hilgard's (1986) comparison between notions of dissociation and repression. Human beings, in this view, have the capacity to dissociate their awareness from experiences, not only when they cannot accept them but also when they become irrelevant to the present focus of their attention. It is not difficult to see that without this capacity we would be swamped by impressions, sensations and experiences. Unlike repression, dissociation can by no means be seen as pathogenic as such.

 can account for the phenomena which the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious tries to explain.

Echoing Sartre's distinction between a prereflective and a reflective consciousness, Ernesto Spinelli (1994: 154: 154 ff.) proposes a theory of 'dissociation' to account for the phenomena which the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious tries to explain. Spinelli bases his ideas on Braude's (1991) philosophical explora tions of multiple personality and Hilgard's (1986) comparison between notions of dissociation and repression. Human beings, in this view, have the capacity to dissociate their awareness from experiences, not only when they c.annot accept them but also when they become irrelevant to the present focus of their attention. It is not difficult to see that without this capacity we would be swamped by impressions, sensations and experiences. Unlike repression, dissociation can by no means be seen as pathogenic as such.

Ernesto SpinelliThinkers

Ernesto Spinelli