This general topic is exactly what I and Agua Del Cielo have been writing about.
Within each of us is a perfectly healthy personality, characterized by confidence, compassion, joyfulness and wisdom. it is fixed and cannot be changed through experience.
Overlaying it are various "fragments" or sub-personalities. These are like colored glasses through which we view the world, but instead of distorting the color of light, they introduce emotional distortions. For example, one sub-personality created through painful experiences with abusive caregivers might introduce a strong sense of distrust of others into all interactions with others, whether warranted or not. From the perspective of the subpersonality, these distortions are necessary ways of coping with a harsh reality, and the subpersonality is unable to view reality from any other perspective except the one it's holding.
We all have these. It seems impossible to go through a single lifetime without accumulating many of of these fragments; but they also persist across lives. They are our catalyst. Without them, we'd be able to encounter any situation with the compassion and acceptance that characterize our core personality.
They arise whenever we're not able to fully meet external catalyst with acceptance. The catalyst is therefore not fully utilized, and it remains inside us as a fragment. Any time a situation arises which reminds the fragment of the original situation that formed it, it reacts with the same emotion as it originally did.
As a result, we can find ourselves reacting to relatively benign situations with a disproportionate emotional response which doesn't seem to make sense. Our emotional response in the present is the sum of the old emotion plus our reaction to the current situation.
As you can imagine, we have the most difficulty understanding, processing and accepting painful situations when we're children. That is why most people have damaged "inner children" - not singular, but plural - holding various traumatic memories and associated emotions. There is no healthy "inner child" - the healthy personality is the core self, and it is playful and joyful, but it is not a child. The appearance of a fragment as a child simply indicates the age at which the fragment was created through some painful experience.
Once the traumatic experience is released fully, the fragment disappears, happily.
Fragments are healed by the loving acceptance of the fragment and the burden it carries. There's some art to this, but if you're able to approach the fragment with love and compassion, it will heal. Sometimes, as Agua Del Cielo says, just sitting with the emotion in a safe setting and allowing ourselves to experience it can be enough to effect healing.
Now to your other questions: Is it a protective process? I don't know the Creator's intent, but fragmentation seems to accomplish two things: 1) allow us to function in life without being overwhelmed by painful emotional experiences, while 2) keeping unprocessed catalyst ever-present and waiting for us to deal with it, one way or another. Sadly, in our culture we don't recognize it for what it is, and do our best to ignore it - while it does its best to not be ignored, because every fragment is a part of us that's in pain, waiting to be healed.
Can drugs produce fragmentation? no idea, but I would imagine that having a traumatic drug-induced experience would.
Can too much meditation produce fragmentation? I doubt it very much. Meditation involves acknowledging and accepting whatever arises - the opposite of the dissociation process which produces fragmentation. Meditation can definitely help to heal fragmentation.
Can fragmentation be caused by a conscious choice to deny part of self? I don't see how that would work. If, as in your example, you're consciously choosing to put forward a certain persona and downplay other characteristics of your personality, that's simply choosing in the present. I do think that some choices, which involve a distortion of love, can over a long period of time generate sufficient amounts of distorted energy that it becomes self-conscious and in a way becomes a fragment.
Personally, I'm far more familiar with the process of identifying and healing fragments than with the process of their creation, so take the previous 3 paragraphs as educated guesses. None of the fragments I've encountered to date in myself or others have been created by anything other than unresolved emotional pain.
Within each of us is a perfectly healthy personality, characterized by confidence, compassion, joyfulness and wisdom. it is fixed and cannot be changed through experience.
Overlaying it are various "fragments" or sub-personalities. These are like colored glasses through which we view the world, but instead of distorting the color of light, they introduce emotional distortions. For example, one sub-personality created through painful experiences with abusive caregivers might introduce a strong sense of distrust of others into all interactions with others, whether warranted or not. From the perspective of the subpersonality, these distortions are necessary ways of coping with a harsh reality, and the subpersonality is unable to view reality from any other perspective except the one it's holding.
We all have these. It seems impossible to go through a single lifetime without accumulating many of of these fragments; but they also persist across lives. They are our catalyst. Without them, we'd be able to encounter any situation with the compassion and acceptance that characterize our core personality.
They arise whenever we're not able to fully meet external catalyst with acceptance. The catalyst is therefore not fully utilized, and it remains inside us as a fragment. Any time a situation arises which reminds the fragment of the original situation that formed it, it reacts with the same emotion as it originally did.
As a result, we can find ourselves reacting to relatively benign situations with a disproportionate emotional response which doesn't seem to make sense. Our emotional response in the present is the sum of the old emotion plus our reaction to the current situation.
As you can imagine, we have the most difficulty understanding, processing and accepting painful situations when we're children. That is why most people have damaged "inner children" - not singular, but plural - holding various traumatic memories and associated emotions. There is no healthy "inner child" - the healthy personality is the core self, and it is playful and joyful, but it is not a child. The appearance of a fragment as a child simply indicates the age at which the fragment was created through some painful experience.
Once the traumatic experience is released fully, the fragment disappears, happily.
Fragments are healed by the loving acceptance of the fragment and the burden it carries. There's some art to this, but if you're able to approach the fragment with love and compassion, it will heal. Sometimes, as Agua Del Cielo says, just sitting with the emotion in a safe setting and allowing ourselves to experience it can be enough to effect healing.
Now to your other questions: Is it a protective process? I don't know the Creator's intent, but fragmentation seems to accomplish two things: 1) allow us to function in life without being overwhelmed by painful emotional experiences, while 2) keeping unprocessed catalyst ever-present and waiting for us to deal with it, one way or another. Sadly, in our culture we don't recognize it for what it is, and do our best to ignore it - while it does its best to not be ignored, because every fragment is a part of us that's in pain, waiting to be healed.
Can drugs produce fragmentation? no idea, but I would imagine that having a traumatic drug-induced experience would.
Can too much meditation produce fragmentation? I doubt it very much. Meditation involves acknowledging and accepting whatever arises - the opposite of the dissociation process which produces fragmentation. Meditation can definitely help to heal fragmentation.
Can fragmentation be caused by a conscious choice to deny part of self? I don't see how that would work. If, as in your example, you're consciously choosing to put forward a certain persona and downplay other characteristics of your personality, that's simply choosing in the present. I do think that some choices, which involve a distortion of love, can over a long period of time generate sufficient amounts of distorted energy that it becomes self-conscious and in a way becomes a fragment.
Personally, I'm far more familiar with the process of identifying and healing fragments than with the process of their creation, so take the previous 3 paragraphs as educated guesses. None of the fragments I've encountered to date in myself or others have been created by anything other than unresolved emotional pain.