‘The interconnectedness that occurs through the process of growth within a loving, non-goal orientated relationship, leads to a negation of the need for an altered state to exist, to defend the threat of nihilation’   (Ball & Picot, 2021)

Making contact with the human experience of psychosis and non psychosis
Dissociachotic theory is an explanatory framework for the emergence and evaporation of altered states of experience.

Dissociachotic explains the experience of animation and giving life to being at variance of companionship to self, in order for the survival of self in relationship to interpersonal threat from another. Dissociachotic provides a framework to respond to any state of distress.

The person experiencing a dissociachotic reality can be understood to be unconsciously putting the state of distress between themselves and the other as a process of developing and maintaining relationship in the safest way possible.

‘In this process a co-existing shared experience can evolve both people having different experiences of the same moment provides a bridge to connection.’   (Ball & Picot, 2021)

Understanding extreme states – Dissociachotic
Dissociachotic draws on many theories and concepts from Laing to Rogers, from the PTMF to Buddhist teachers, Frankl, Guerin, Travelbee, Schwing, indigenous knowledge and wisdom and existential meanings, polyvagal and trauma theories to spiritual and shamanic concepts, and from the original ideas and theories of Matt Ball.

Dissociachotic is an alternative to pathologising human distress. Although initially conceptualised as an alternative way to understand extreme states often referred to as ‘psychosis’, Dissociachotic framework can be valuable to explain any perceived threat response, offering an alternative to the diagnostic and pathologising narratives in mental health systems.

Resources:

• “Dissociachotic: So What” youtube video
• Ball, M., & Picot, S. (2021). Dissociachotic: Seeing the Nonpsychosis We Share. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 63(2), 229-236. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022167821993668 (Original work published 2023)