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Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
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Methods to induce dissociation and their effects on intrusions and memory: a randomized controlled trauma-film study
Sarah K Danböck1,2, Sabrina E Hettegger2, Laila K Franke2
1Department of Psychology, University of Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
European Journal of Psychotraumatology
|October 27, 2025
Summary
This study found hypnotic suggestion and spiral staring effectively induce dissociation, impacting memory negatively but not intrusion formation. These methods aid laboratory study of dissociation and trauma memory.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Trauma Studies
Background:
- Peritraumatic dissociation is linked to posttraumatic symptoms like intrusions and memory issues.
- Previous trauma-analogue studies on dissociation induction and its effects on intrusions/memory yielded inconclusive results.
- Systematic comparison of dissociation induction methods is crucial for understanding these effects.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness, intensity, and quality of different dissociation-induction methods.
- To assess the impact of induced dissociation on intrusions and memory performance.
- To compare dissociation induction methods in a pre-registered randomized controlled online experiment.
Main Methods:
- Healthy participants (N=213) were randomized to six dissociation-induction methods (hypnotic suggestion, audio-photic stimulation, spiral-staring) with varying durations, plus control and benchmark conditions.
- Following induction, participants viewed an aversive film, with peri-film dissociation, intrusion load, and memory assessed.
- Effectiveness was defined as inducing dissociation levels higher than control and at least as high as the benchmark.
Main Results:
- Three minutes of hypnotic suggestion and one minute of spiral-staring successfully induced dissociation.
- Hypnotic suggestion increased dissociation intensity more than spiral-staring; spiral-staring dissociation was perceived as less controllable and more unpleasant.
- Dissociation induction did not affect intrusion load but adversely impacted self-reported and objectively assessed memory performance.
Conclusions:
- Hypnotic suggestion and spiral-staring are effective, accessible, and potentially neuroimaging-compatible methods for laboratory-based dissociation research.
- The study did not support the idea that dissociation promotes intrusion formation.
- Causal evidence was found for dissociation's negative impact on trauma memory.
Keywords:
DisociaciónDissociationcued recallepisodic memoryexperimental inductionfragmentación de la memoriainducción experimentalintrusiónmemoria episódicamemory fragmentationpelícula de traumaposttraumatic stress disorderprovocación de síntomasre-experiencingrecuerdos con señalesreexperimentaciónsymptom provocationtrastorno de estrés postraumáticotrauma-film
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