Persona-mediated dissociation: a new framework for understanding the work/self-split in sex workers.
Ellis Sather
Frontiers in Public Health March 12, 2026 DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1779090 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Qualitative Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Humans Dissociative disorders Female Sex workers Occupational identity Adaptive dissociation Identity compartmentalization Persona-mediated dissociation |
| Key points | Proposes "persona-mediated dissociation" as a framework for understanding context-specific, identity-mediated psychological distancing in sex work, in which a deliberately constructed work persona mediates between the private self and the demands of sexual labor. The authors specify voluntariness, contextual specificity, reversibility, and preserved executive functioning as core dimensions, predict that persona activation co-varies with state dissociative phenomenology and maintained functioning, and expect distress mainly when persona use is prolonged, role exit is impaired, or structural constraints limit decompression and support. |
Abstract
Research on dissociation in sex workers is sparse, dated, and frequently framed through trauma-exclusive or symptom-focused models, leaving the occupational functions of dissociative processes underexamined. In contrast, qualitative and ethnographic scholarship consistently describes intentional work persona construction as routine in sex work and often articulated in dissociative-like terms. This Hypothesis and Theory article proposes persona-mediated dissociation, a framework describing context-specific, identity-mediated psychological distancing in which a deliberately constructed work persona mediates between the private self and the interpersonal, emotional, and embodied demands of sexual labor. The model specifies voluntariness, contextual specificity, reversibility, and preserved executive functioning as core dimensions and predicts that persona activation will co-vary with state dissociative phenomenology and maintained functioning. Distress is expected primarily when persona use is prolonged, role exit is impaired, or structural constraints limit decompression and support. This framework clarifies distinctions between occupational regulation and clinically significant dissociation and generates testable predictions for future research.