A patient shows a mismatch between emotionally significant content and the feeling displayed. Before revealing the answer, decide what distinguishes dissociation of affect from affect blunting.

Ask whether the reduced emotional response is confined specifically to particular, often traumatic, content, with emotional expression otherwise normal, or whether it is a general, across-the-board reduction affecting the whole interview regardless of topic. Dissociation of affect differs from affect blunting, a morbid expression of emotion in which the capacity for emotional response is generally reduced across the board, rather than selectively separated from particular content: dissociation of affect is a specific separation between an emotionally significant event or memory and the accompanying feeling, most often arising in relation to traumatic or overwhelming material, with an automatic, involuntary quality, while emotional responsiveness to other, unrelated content remains intact. Affect blunting, by contrast, is a pervasive reduction in the range and intensity of emotional expression across the whole interview and across situations and topics, not confined to one particular subject. Whether the reduced feeling is selective to specific charged content or pervasive across the entire presentation is the key distinguishing feature.