Dissociative Self-States and Self-State Systems in DID

Name: Dissociative Self-States and Self-State Systems in DID
Start: 2025-09-06T09:00:00+10:00
End: 2025-09-06T09:00:00+10:00

Prof Richard Kluft on Dissociative Self-States and Self-State Systems in DID: Phenomenology, Functions, and Treatment

The presence and activities of diverse organized centers of experience, identity, initiative, and executive control characterize the mental functioning and lives of individuals diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder and allied complex, chronic dissociative conditions. Working with these dissociated self-states (i.e., alters, identities) is a central concern in their psychotherapeutic treatments. This presentation reviews the emergence of the current “new classical” picture of these disorders, a model that superseded earlier depictions and stereotypes, and explores the implications of this revised understanding. It discusses alters, alter systems and system “rules,” and how the inner worlds of dissociative patients impact overt behaviors from behind the scenes, expressing the thoughts and initiatives of alters ostensibly not exerting executive control. It describes “invitational inclusionism,” a therapeutic stance that embraces all alters and invites them to become stakeholders in the success of the treatment, and outlines the types of interventions (applicable within most psychotherapeutic paradigms) that follow naturally from its premises. It discusses and demonstrates how phenomena long thought to indicate psychosis can be understood as markers of the activities of alters not currently in executive control, and become powerful tools for working across dissociative barriers, often even when these barriers have been powerful and deeply entrenched. Finally, it explores the concept and process of integration.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the contemporary “new classical” model of Dissociative Identity Disorder and list the differences between this description and what had been the longstanding previous 'classical' model, considered valid into the mid-1980s.
Identify and explain the roles of dissociated self-states (alters), alter systems, and system rules in shaping internal experiences and external behaviors in individuals with dissociative conditions.
Describe the principles of “invitational inclusionism” and discuss how this therapeutic stance fosters engagement with all alters and can inform interventions across various psychotherapeutic approaches.
Interpret dissociative phenomena which take the forms of First Rank Symptoms of Schizophrenia and are often mistaken for signs of psychosis as expressions of non-dominant alters, and utilize these manifestations to better interpret clinical findings and facilitate communication and integration within the alter system of patients with complex, chronic dissociative disorders.

Venue: Online Webinar. Includes access to video recording for 30 days.

Date: Saturday, 6th of September, 2025

Time: 0900hrs to 1130hrs (Sydney/Melbourne Time)

Cost: 89.99

CPD Certificate: 2.5 hours

About Prof Richard Kluft: Richard P. Kluft, M.D., Ph.D., Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Temple University School of Medicine, practices in Bala Cynwyd, PA. He teaches at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, where he has been a Waiver Training Analyst, and at the China American Psychoanalytic Alliance. Dr. Kluft is the author of over 280 professional publications. His book, Shelter from the Storm, explored a compassionate approach to the abreaction of trauma. His edited books include Childhood Antecedents of Multiple Personality and Incest-Related Syndromes of Adult Psychopathology, and, with Catherine G. Fine, Ph.D., Clinical Perspectives on Multiple Personality Disorder. Founder and former Editor-in-Chief of DISSOCIATION, Dr. Kluft has also held editorial positions with the International Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis, and the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis. He was a co-founder and President of the ISST&D, and has been President of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. He chaired 14th International Congress of Hypnosis for the International Society of Hypnosis. His published research, clinical contributions, and teaching have received numerous awards. Dr. Kluft has a second career as a novelist. He has published three mystery/thriller novels, Good Shrink/Bad Shrink (2014), An Obituary to Die For (2016) and A Sinister Subtraction (2019); and a novella, How Fievel Stole the Moon: A Tale for Sweet Children and Sour Scholars (2014).

About eiseEducation: eiseEducation delivers exceptional webinars, short courses, and professional development training to the mental health, social services & community services sector across Australia & New Zealand. Find out more at eiseEducation.com

Dissociative Self-States and Self-State Systems in DID

Prof Richard Kluft on Dissociative Self-States and Self-State Systems in DID: Phenomenology, Functions, and Treatment

Contact Event Organiser

Contact Form

Contact Form

Your email has been sent.

Contact Form