Integration is the process of accepting aspects of yourself as part of you. It involves processing sensations, memories, traits, etc. as fully yours and accepting their presence (even if you dislike them).
Some examples of integration:
- Accepting that traits of your Psychological Shadow belong to you
- Recovering trauma memories
- Processing trauma memories
- Teaching Parts to speak to and work with each other
- Lowering barriers between Parts
What is integration?
Integration in its most basic form occurs any time that information is processed. When an individual incorporates a fact into their understanding of their self or an event into their understanding of their personal history, that’s integration. Dissociation can be seen as a failure of integration. When an individual is struggling with depersonalization or derealization, they’re having difficulty processing relevant information about their self or environment in real time. When an individual has dissociative amnesia, their memory of the traumatic or stressful event(s) are kept separate from their other memories and may be accessible only through dissociative flashbacks. When an individual has dissociative identity disorder (DID) or other specified dissociative disorder subtype 1 (OSDD-1), information is stored in separate dissociated parts, known as alters.
Every individual who has been through trauma must integrate to some extent as part of healing. This means accepting that the trauma occurred, making it part of one’s personal narrative, and making it accessible in a way that does not cause intense re-experiencing of trauma elements. In doing so, an individual may have to accept thoughts, feelings, and urges associated with their trauma. For example, an individual with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may find that as they integrate their trauma history into their personal narrative, they have to also process feelings of helplessness, betrayal, fear, or anger. In terms of structural dissociation, the individual has to integrate the emotional part(s) associated with their trauma, and that means having to take ownership of everything that the part(s) contained.
Katherine Reuben, Integration, 2021 Note: others have noted that this source does have biases and presents some unverified theories as fact (e.g. that DID only develops before a specific age, which is neither proven nor in the criteria). It’s unfortunately still the best source I could dig up for a definition of integration.
See also: Fusion (Plurality), Presence