Rape: Forced sexual intercourse or another sexual act committed against a nonconsenting person or intercourse with an underage person.

Dissociative amnesia: A dissociative disorder marked by an inability to recall important personal events and information.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): A disorder in which fear and related symptoms continue to be experienced long after a traumatic event.

Self-hypnosis: The process of hypnotizing oneself, sometimes for the purpose of forgetting unpleasant events.

Parasympathetic nervous system: The nerve fibers of the autonomic nervous system that help return bodily processes to normal.

Autonomic nervous system (ANS): The network of nerve fibers that connect the central nervous system to all the other organs of the body.

Endocrine system: The system of glands located throughout the body that help control important activities such as growth and sexual activity.

Sympathetic nervous system: The nerve fibers of the autonomic nervous system that quicken the heartbeat and produce other changes experienced as arousal and fear.

Subpersonalities: The two or more distinct personalities found in individuals suffering with dissociative identity disorder. Also known as alternate personalities.

Psychological debriefing: A form of crisis intervention in which victims are helped to talk about their feelings and reactions to traumatic incidents. Also called critical incident stress debriefing.

Torture: The use of brutal, degrading, and disorienting strategies to reduce victims to a state of utter helplessness.

Dissociative identity disorder: A disorder in which a person develops two or more distinct personalities. Also known as multiple personality disorder.

Dissociative disorders: A group of disorders in which some parts of one’s memory or identity seem to be dissociated, or separated, from other parts of one’s memory or identity.

Fusion: The final merging of two or more subpersonalities in multiple personality disorder.

Acute stress disorder: A disorder in which fear and related symptoms are experienced soon after a traumatic event and last less than a month.

State-dependent learning: Learning that becomes associated with the conditions under which it occurred, so that it is best remembered under the same conditions.

Corticosteroids: A group of hormones, including cortisol, released by the adrenal glands at times of stress.

Hypnotic therapy: A treatment in which the patient undergoes hypnosis and is then guided to recall forgotten events or perform other therapeutic activities. Also known as hypnotherapy.

Depersonalization-derealization disorder: A dissociative disorder marked by the presence of persistent and recurrent episodes of depersonalization, derealization, or both.

Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) pathway: One route by which the brain and body produce arousal and fear.

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): An exposure treatment in which clients move their eyes in a rhythmic manner from side to side while flooding their minds with images of objects and situations they ordinarily avoid.

Memory: The faculty for recalling past events and past learning.