Used generally to characterize the process (or its
result) whereby a coordinated set of activities, thoughts, attitudes, or
emotions becomes separated from the rest of the person's personality and
functions independently. More extreme forms are observed in the dissociative
disorders (e.g., Multiple personality disorder, fugue, amnesia). H.S. Sullivan
used the term to characterize the process whereby thoughts or memories that
produce
anxiety are cut off from consciousness.