Dissociative experiences are common in traumatized individuals who can use dissociation as a psychological escape from emotional and physical distress associated with overwhelming traumatic events. Traumatic experiences and the cultural interpretation of trauma-related symptoms often serve to explain the wide range of dissociative phenomenology; in fact, dissociation is a complex and ubiquitous construct present in a variety of mental disorders. The Six-Dimensions Model of National Culture has been used as a tool to compare patients' different cultural background that could have accounted for the different clinical manifestations. This paper reports three clinical cases in which the focus of interest is represented by the dissociative alterations of consciousness, as a response to trauma, specifically related to migration, and their correlation with cultural environment. The study shows as Hofstede's model has been used for the first time as a tool to explain how different cultural background could shape clinical manifestations.
Keywords: 6-D model of national culture; Consultation-liaison psychiatry; Cultural psychiatry; Dissociation; Migration; Trauma.