dissociative

American  

[di-soh-see-uht-iv, di-soh-shee-ayt-iv, -suht-iv] / dɪˈsoʊ si ət ɪv, dɪˈsoʊ ʃiˌeɪt ɪv, -sət ɪv /

adjective

1. Psychiatry. relating to or exhibiting a condition in which a group of mental processes is split off from the main body of consciousness, as in amnesia or certain forms of hysteria.

2. Physical Chemistry. relating to, tending toward, or exhibiting the reversible resolution or decomposition of a complex substance into simpler components.

3. relating to a disjunction or separation between two or more things.

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dissociative

Conditions like dissociative identity disorder may dictate multiple support animals, and the growth in pet psychologists portends a burgeoning trend of emotionally affected pets needing their own support animals.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

So I think the album is very representative of that experience and I think why it continues to resonate for subsequent generations is, it’s very dissociative.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 24, 2025

She had been battling various mental health conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and dissociative identity disorder.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025

Bradshaw concluded their respective symptoms, even though they could only be observed externally, “were pathognomonic for dissociative and attachment disorders and for Complex PTSD.”

From Salon ● Jun. 5, 2024

Very few had taken to agriculture, for which, indeed, the dry soil was seldom fitted, and the half-nomadic life of stock-farmers, each pasturing his cattle over great tracts of country, confirmed their dissociative instincts.

From Impressions of South Africa by Bryce, James Bryce, Viscount