anybody and everybody can dissociate and in fact do every day of their lives. Dissociation is just thinking about other things then what you are physically doing...

watching tv and getting so concentrated on the tv show you don't notice what is physically going on around you- the person sitting next to you gets up and gets something to eat or changes positions but you don't notice it because you arre mentally concentrating on the movie.

And people are not considered DID just because they dissociate.

What distinguishes the person as being DID is that they act out their memories that have been separated and stored at the unconscious level.. for example someone sitting in a mall eating and talking to friends and someone goes into a conversation about something that is the persons trigger, lets say the persons trigger is the word kiss. the friend is talking about the kiss she recieved on her date and suddenly the person with DID hears the word - kiss - and starts feeling far away and then the next thing she knows she is out side in her friends car. what she doesn't remember is that because she imagined herself floating away from the triggering topic at hand - the kiss by a date - the brain working like a computer matched the triggering topic - kiss by a date - and replayed that matching piece of memory. mentally the person is off floating but physically she is now talking and interacting with her friend based on the memory content of her being kissed on a date.

If your father was DID he would have taken part in the conversation based on what memory was replaying in his mind.

Statists wise there are alot of convicted rapists that do not remember their actually committing their abusive acts. The reason is yea they disoociated - they thought of something else while committing the act - be it their favorite actor / actress or daydreamed any other scenerio in which it would make their commiting the crime either not be one of force (how many of us have been blamed for wearing the wrong clothes or other rediculas excuse for why our abusers hurt us?)

Theres probably no doubt your father can and did dissociate but only a professional can say if he is DID so Im betting the fact that he realized he was not listening and admitted to not listening could very well just mean he was thinking about something other then the present conversation. The DID's that I have contact with don't say they weren't listening after they dissociate because they are too confused, foggy headed and have a headache when "comming back" so they are busy trying to cover that they don't remember things so people don't think they are crazy

So yea he can and probably did dissociate because every human being can and does dissociate everyday and is normal behavior when bored, concentrating or even during conversations they are not interested in or want to have.

As for him being DID - its anyones guess until he is tested and my guess is I don't think so.