The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in normal dissociative experiences and their meaning in Japanese young adults. In Study 1, 130 undergraduate, graduate, technical college students, with an average of 20.1 years of age, were asked to describe dissociative experiences they had. KJ analysis found eight main categories for the episodes: absent-mindedness and daydream, imaginative involvement and absorption, automatic behavior, simultaneous behaviors, detail amnesia, fugue, depersonalization, and desensitization. In Study 2, 28 undergraduate and graduate students, with an average of 20.6 years of age, who agreed to be interviewed after Study 1, participated. Three years later, three women were interviewed again, and results of case study for the three indicated that of the eight categories, they experienced absent-mindedness and daydream, imaginative involvement and absorption, automatic behavior, simultaneous behaviors, and weak depersonalization during the period. Analyses of their narratives showed that changes in experiences and meaning had strong relationships to developmental situations and tasks that the individuals faced.
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