Dissociation The splitting off of clusters of mental contents from conscious awareness. The term is also used to describe the separation of an idea from its emotional significance and effect as seen in the inappropriate effect of schizophrenia. Often a result of psychic trauma it may allow the individual to maintain allegiance to 2 contradictory truths while remaining unconscious of the contradiction. Copyright Notice Adapted from Wikipedia. Text is available under the  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0 ; additional terms may apply.