L’automatisme e il dibattito contemporaneo sulla dissociazione: domande aperte e alcuni chiarimenti

With the Automatisme Psychologique, Pierre Janet actually opened the field of studies of the organization of consciousness phenomena in psychopathology. Nowadays, this seminal contribution is correctly seen as the origin of modern views on dissociation. Currently, research perspectives on dissociation present elements of convergence, but also aspects of dissonance that lay the ground for some contradictions and ambiguities as to the definition itself of dissociative phenomena. In this comment, two open questions of the contemporary debate on dissociations are taken into account. The first question concerns the possibility to extend the notion of the loss of integrative functions of consciousness to several psychiatric manifestations. The second question concerns the critical aspects of the interpretation of dissociation as a psychic defense, rather than as a mere psychopathological outcome. In the discussion it will be stressed how the complex and articulated proposal emerging from Janet’s original contribution casts light on a multilayered series of processes that can be partly referred to the field of dissociation, and partly to the processes of adjustment and organization of personality following the onset of dissociative experiences themselves. This basic distinction revolves hinges on the notion of intentionality, bearing important consequences for both clinical evaluation and therapeutic intervention.