Political Overwhelm and Partial Dissociation: A Stuck Psyche.

Christine D. Fazio, LMHC, LPC, ACS

In my clinical practice, supervision of clinicians and/or in the classroom, I’ve noticed a pattern that feels increasingly common: thoughtful, engaged people describing a strange split in themselves. They are informed but numb. Outraged but immobilized. Scrolling but not metabolizing. They say things like, “I know this is serious, but I feel stuck,” or “I feel like I’m watching the country burn through glass.” What I’m hearing is not apathy. It is not ignorance. It is not a lack of moral seriousness.

It is, in many cases, a form of partial dissociation.

In the context of the ongoing political instability, threats to democratic norms, climate crisis, racial violence, economic precarity, and relentless media exposure in the United States, many citizens are living in a chronic state of nervous system activation. And when activation becomes unrelenting, the mind does what it has always done to survive trauma: it organizes experience by splitting it.

Dissociation as Adaptive Survival

From a trauma perspective, dissociation is not pathological first. It is protection.

When the nervous system perceives threat without sufficient relief or resolution, it moves through predictable survival states: fight, flight, freeze, collapse. Dissociation often accompanies freeze or collapse — a neurobiological dampening that allows the organism to endure what feels overwhelming or inescapable. Historically, we associate dissociation with acute trauma. But chronic sociopolitical instability can function as a slow-moving traumatic stressor. It is ambient. Ongoing. Unfinished.

Partial dissociation in this context can look like: Emotional numbing while consuming distressing news; Cynicism masquerading as intellectual clarity; Compulsive doomscrolling paired with a sense of unreality; alternating hyperarousal (rage, panic) and shutdown (detachment, fatigue). A sense that “none of this feels real” despite knowing it is

This is not denial. It is the nervous system rationing affect.

Splitting, Disavowal, and Un-mentalized Experience

From a psychoanalytic perspective, we might understand this moment through the lens of splitting and disavowal.

When reality feels unbearable, the psyche divides it:

• “This is catastrophic” coexists with “This doesn’t really affect me.”

• “Democracy is fragile” coexists with “Everything will probably be fine.”

These are not intellectual inconsistencies. They are defensive organizations of experience.

Bion’s concept of uncontained beta elements is useful here. Raw, unprocessed emotional experiences require containment; a mind that can metabolize them. But in a fragmented media environment driven by speed and outrage, there is little containment and limited capacity of the mind to digest and restore self. Instead, there is projection, amplification, and emotional contagion.

Without containment, experience becomes either: Flooding (panic, rage, despair), or Evacuated (numbness, dissociation, ironic detachment) We are witnessing both.

Why This Matters

When citizens live in chronic partial dissociation:

• Civic engagement decreases.

• Empathy narrows.

• Polarization intensifies.

• Despair masquerades as realism.

Clinically, we see increased anxiety, somatic complaints, sleep disturbance, relational strain, and existential fatigue.

Importantly, dissociation limits agency. If parts of experience are split off or numbed, action becomes either reactive or paralyzed. The goal is not to eliminate defensive processes because they are adaptive. The goal is to restore integration without overwhelming the system.

Trauma-Informed and Relational Ways to Address Political Dissociation

Below are approaches I often suggest to patients, students, and colleagues.

 Name the Dissociation Without Shaming It

Language restores mentalization.

Instead of:

• “I’m lazy.”

• “I don’t care anymore.”

Try:

• “A part of me feels overwhelmed and is shutting down.”

• “I notice I’m going numb right now.”

This shifts from moral judgment to compassionate curiosity. Dissociation softens when it is recognized rather than attacked.

Restore Relational Containment

Collective stress requires collective processing.

• Join structured discussion groups rather than relying solely on social media.

• Engage in conversations that prioritize listening over persuasion.

• Seek safe, intergenerational dialogue; it widens perspective and reduces catastrophic thinking.

In therapy, this may involve explicitly processing sociopolitical stress rather than bracketing it as “external.” Politics are lived in the body. Containment happens when another mind can hold what feels unbearable.

Move From Helplessness to Bounded Agency

Trauma narrows perceived options. Dissociation reinforces that narrowing.

Identify:

• One local action.

• One relational repair.

• One meaningful civic engagement.

Agency does not require solving the entire crisis. It requires movement from collapse toward participation. Even small actions reorganize the nervous system away from helplessness.

 Reintegrate the Body

Dissociation often involves disconnection from somatic experience.

Grounding practices are not clichés; they are neurobiological interventions:

• Feel your feet on the floor while reading the news.

• Track breath.

• Engage in rhythmic movement.

• Notice temperature, pressure, orientation.

The body anchors the psyche in present time, differentiating current stress from past trauma.

Partial dissociation in the face of chronic sociopolitical crisis is not weakness. It is the mind’s attempt to survive what feels uncontainable. But survival strategies that protect us from overwhelm can also distance us from aliveness, agency, and connection.

As clinicians, educators, and citizens, our task is not to demand constant activation. Nor is it to collude with numbing. Our task is integration; helping ourselves and others metabolize reality in ways that preserve dignity, complexity, and relational connection.

In trauma work, we often say: the opposite of trauma is not calm; it is connection.

In this political moment, that feels especially true.

Christine D. Fazio, LMHC, LPC, ACS - a relational, psychoanalytic psychotherapist working in Brooklyn and Manhattan. christine@mymoderntherapist.com