It was a privilege to have received several thoughtful and challenging reactions from the esteemed colleagues Ross (2015), and Schimmenti and Caretti (2015) to an article in Psichiatra e Psicoterapia (Nijenhuis 2014b) in which I asserted that PTSD, regardless of subtype, essentially is a dissociative disorder. They do not feel that this view goes far enough. Quite to the contrary, Ross (2013, 2014) feels that dissociation of the personality is a feature of far more mental disorders than DSM-5 (APA 2013), ICD-10 (WHO 1992), or the authors of the theory of structural dissociation of the personality (TSDP; Nijenhuis 2015a, b; Van der Hart et al. 2006) regard as dissociative. Schimmenti and Caretti (2015) similarly suggest that dissociation may be a key variable for a comprehensive understanding of psychopathology in general. I am most grateful to the colleague professor Giuseppe Craparo and to the editor-in-chief of Psichiatra e Psicoterapia for their invitation to write a rejoinder, and highly appreciated and used Van der Hart’s most helpful comments on a previous draft of the present article. Van der Hart concurs with the contents of the final version. I will first respond to Ross’ concerns, and later also address the issues that Schimmenti and Caretti have raised.
Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis
