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The Social Consequences of Dissociation: Lessons from the Same-Sex Marriage Debate

This essay explores two problematic functions of dissociation in publicly distributed, anti-same-sex marriage talking points guides. I argue that the organizations responsible for these guides use dissociation to sidestep self-identified conflicts between their values and actions and to disguise arguments based on social animus as claims about abstract concepts such as marriage. To further the study of dissociation in public discourse, I advocate a broader view: arguments that merely attempt to create the kind of fundamental, conceptual divisions for which dissociation is known—but do not succeed—can still have social consequences and warrant close study.