Dissociation and Memory
Adam CrabtreeSince il fits/ callie und" systemafic scm liny fwo II undred)'ear~ ago, dissociation has poi7lted 0111 cerlain /H'('u liaritits of memory. Tht discrroery of IIWlJlil!tjC slup ill J 784 revealed Ihatlherl. are Mj)(lrate consciousrussts fhal operate witliin (III individual, each with a distinct memory chain. "/71/ ! lack of atooreness of 0111. cOI!sciOll. nltsS for lhe experience oJlhe olher was called amnesia. Further ex/)erim(!"ll~ tatiOl! showed that those (olisciouSlltsSl.$ could be multiple, alld /lwi different experiences could be assilJllnl to differelll centers of consciousness. This itidicalcd Ihat the Imns "aml!esia ~ or 1orgeffillg~ do not really appl)', since iT/fonnaliOl! assigned /0 OIII! cenlm' was nol know)! by Ihe otherulliers in lhefirsl place. hi Ih e 1890's this "dissociated" way of functioning camp to be seefl by many (IS 1/ormal alld common to allllllmmi beings. The theory of slalt-'ulaled memo,)', arising inlhe J 960's confirmed lhis view. Later, Ih e BASK model providrd afmmeworkJor synthesizing a broad array of dala about (/issociatiOll. Most recently, Ihe COTICej)/ oj rultural dissociation POiTlts 0111 the need to retrieve and reclaim a wide variety of hllman eXfN'lences Ihat !ulVe beer! i"terdicted by our culture and barred Jrom mainstream thinking. DISSOCIATION AND THE DISCOVERY OF MAGNETIC SLEEP Dissociation asa systcmatically STudied phenomenon dates back two hundred years. In the late 1770's, the Viennese physician FranzAnlOn Mesme rdevised and promoted a healingsystem that em'isiolled the physician asa healer, nOt prescribing potions and medicatiolls, but using his own organism to direct healing energy throughout the body of the ill patient. That energy Mesmer called "magnetic fluid ," and his system was named Manimal magnetism" (Mesmer, 17i9), Then in 1784, one ofMesTTler's pupils made a momentous discover)'. H e was the Marquis de Puysegur, an aristacratliving near Soiswns in France. Puysegur noticed that when he applied animal magne Tism to heal Victor Race, a local peasant, of a lung infection , an odd Thing occurred. Victor fell asleep, and },e t, in a pecu liar way, he was still awake. In this slecl>-wakingstate, Victor showed cenain remarkable qualities. He was very suggestible, and althe mere word of Puysegur could be made to think he was hunting or at a
