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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
Unrelenting catastrophic trauma within the family: when every secure base is abusive
1Sub-Department of Clinical Health Psychology, University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK. h.steele@ucl.ac.uk
Abstract:
This paper will present illustrations from Adult Attachment Interviews conducted with adult female survivors of chronic ritual abuse in their family of origin. A model of multiple personality disorder informed by the Adult Attachment Interview coding and classification system will be presented. A range of victim, perpetrator and bystander personalities may be identified in the same interview, indeed in the same speaker. For the speaker who believes herself to be one of a number of co-existing personalities, integration and coherence means death of a loved one, indeed death of the sense of self. Possibilities of re-birth into a single integrated self are posited.
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