Detach and dissociate

We begin with a premordial split, an atomic fissure which will set the stage for what is to come.

There is, of course, the Lacanian split of the ego from the unconscious. Then, we have the straightforward notion of neurotic repression as the hiding away of emotion and memory from the conscious mind, for the purpose of protection from pain- some things are best left forgotten. Painful memories and emotions may be too much to bear, but they cannot simply be erased: They must be stored "elsewhere". This "elsewhere" is of little interest to the subject, whose only concern is that it isn't "here". But it is of great interest to the analyst, the scientist, or the spiritualist. The great "elsewhere", where the conscious dare not explore.

This usual notion of repression knows only a distinction between unitary consciousness and unitary unconsciousness. But what of the special case of the alleged splitting of one ego into two?

Accounting for the oh so controversial "multiple personalities" of the dissociative subject would seem to require a more sophisticated framework. I will spoil the answer. What is needed is a contradiction¹: A set of encounters which present a radically alternative frame of being, fit to some but not all experience, generating the development of divergent modes of processing specialized to their own particular scenarios. Minimize the overlap, and you'll minimize the interconnection. This is not a simple ejection or stifling of interchangeable components of the psyche, but a more thorough separation, a decoupling of otherwise unitary processes. It is not simply stray emotions and memories which are pushed away from the singular "bulk" psyche, but something more. Something unique.

It is in this special case that the subject becomes broken. The psyche is in pieces. Each piece is operationally secluded from each other: It is a mind of its own, albeit an incomplete one. It may develop separately, producing its own feelings, habits, judgements, and so on.

So long as these pieces are bound together by flesh, however, they can never be truly separated. Pathways of connection will crop up inevitably, persistently, they will continue to intertangle, and the possibility of a deeper recoupling will remain ever-present. The only means of ensuring the continued individuation of each piece is by a physical, spatial separation.

How might one achieve this?

1 - To continue with Lacanian terms, this is a confrontation with the real.