Center for Disengagement and Dissociation Support

What is dissociation support?

Dissociation and disengagement assistance aims to support people in turning away from anti-democratic and anti-human rights attitudes, such as so-called violent extremism and other forms of group-based hostility - in other words, to help people distance themselves from these world views. Young people who make hateful statements in schools or youth facilities should be addressed as early as possible, as young people with such attitudes and affective impulses are often still in a phase of orientation and testing. Through individual relationship work and/or intensive educational group training as well as counselling with relatives and educators who have a direct connection to the young people, further escalation of extremist involvement can possibly be prevented - and a process of democratic personality formation can be initiated. In contrast to exit work, (outreach) dissociation assistance begins before young people are no longer open to anything other than right-wing extremist thought patterns.

According to the common classification of prevention - primary or universal / secondary or event-related / tertiary or indicated - outreach dissociation assistance is classified as secondary prevention. In Cultures Interactive's two-pole classification of civic education interventions, dissociation assistance is classified as an indicative intervention, as opposed to an educational measure.

Who is addressed by dissociation support

Dissociation support in the context of right-wing extremism prevention is primarily aimed at adolescents and young people at risk of or involved in right-wing extremism. In other areas, such as religious extremism, young people involved are addressed in a similar way. This is because the process of radicalization among young people begins at an increasingly early age. On an emotional level, young people at risk of right-wing extremism usually show a tendency to act out impulses of group hatred and violence. On the cognitive level, we often find a high susceptibility to ideologies of inequality and conspiracy narratives. The relationship structures of the person often contain a high degree of dependency and abuse. Children and adolescents growing up in extremist family contexts can also benefit from educational dissociation support. Furthermore, educational professionals are often confronted with young people who perceive dehumanizing and anti-democratic statements as normal, as these are widely shared in their social environment. These young people should also be reached by dissociation support in order to give them an unbiased, human rights-based and self-determined perspective on life.

Furthermore, multipliers and educational professionals are addressed by dissociation assistance, because they are often the earliest to notice anti-democratic and misanthropic attitudes of adolescents in schools or youth (help) facilities. It is important to support them in assessing phenomena and problem situations well, using forms of appropriate initial reaction and designing a sustainable pedagogical approach.

What the Center for Dissociation Support does

The Center for Dissociation Support offers information, counseling and support for educational measures to foster dissociation processes and democratic personal development. Training for practitioners and information for multipliers are also provided in relation to work with young people. All services offered by the Center can be found on this website. Specialized information events, working groups, training courses and conferences are held to pool expertise and transfer it into professional practice. Since 2012, national and European projects have ensured the methodological development and quality management of the Center for Dissociation Support. Publications to further the professional discourse as well as materials and tools for practitioners appear regularly in German and English.

The Center for Dissociation Support is directly linked to the Center for the Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism (fa:rp), which is part of the nationwide Competence Network for the Prevention of Right-Wing Extremism (KompRex). Together with the Center for Prevention and Education in the Area of Conspiracy Theories (fa:ve) and the Counseling Center "Veritas" in Saxony-Anhalt as well as the Outreach Youth (Social Context) Counseling (AJUB) and the corresponding EU-wide projects, they form an overall context of cross-phenomenon secondary prevention at Cultures Interactive (NGO).