#If you've got access to the episode Inqusition in your own language the scene where it's explained starts around 14 minutes in

[walkingstackofbooks]

Sorry, can you explain what engramatic dissociation is from your latest post? English isn't my first language so I have a little bit of trouble understanding it/what it means when a plot uses that. Thanks!

Of course! I've tried my best, but feel free to inbox or private message me if it still doesn't make sense, because I honestly wasn't quite sure where to start!

Okay, so - "engramatic" is a made-up word, meaning something to do with how memories are stored. "Dissociation" means being disconnected or separated. The only mention of "engramatic disocciation" is when Sloan is gaslighting Julian in Inquisition - canonically, as far as we know, it's only a theory that doesn't work.

But if it did work, it would be the process of someone being able to store particular memories in such a way that they're totally disconnected from them - as though the memories have been shut away in a part of the brain that the person doesn't even know is there.

In Julian's case, Sloan wants him to believe that while he was in Prison Camp 371, he was convinced to join the Dominion's side and work for them as a spy - and then, that he was able to lock those memories of joining the Dominion away, so that as far as he knows, he's still loyal to the Federation. When he's back on DS9, the Dominion would somehow be able to "trigger" Julian's memories of becoming a Dominion spy, so that for a time he is working for them and passing on information - and then, as soon as his task is complete, all the spy memories are locked away again, and he's back to being normal Julian who doesn't even know he's forgotten anything.

This *didn't* happen - Sloan was making it all up - but in posts and fics like the last one, people are wondering, "What would it look like if Julian really was forced into engramatic dissociation. Let's make an AU where he really was tortured and broken into becoming a spy, but has totally forgotten all those memories on purpose, and only remembers that he's a spy when he's triggered into it."