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I read this in an article of The Atlantic:
We walk into a pitch-black, freezing-cold building and discover there are youngsters lurking about—they’re tiny, but older, something weird, like trolls, filthy, stinking. We open a door and find a population of ‘cretins’—now it’s known as congenital iodine deficiency syndrome; untreated hypothyroidism stunts growth and brain development. There were children with underlying genetic disorders lying in cages. You start almost to disassociate.
The usual spelling is dissociate. In its use in psychology as a mental action, state, or event, Wikipedia gives its definition as follows:
Dissociation is any of a wide array of experiences from mild detachment from immediate surroundings to more severe detachment from physical and emotional experiences. The major characteristic of all dissociative phenomena involves a detachment from reality, rather than a loss of reality as in psychosis.
The usual dictionary definitions focus on separating one’s self from people, organizations, or views with which one does not wish to associate.
