It might be confusing to many because there are different facets of 1 concept.

Dissociation can be:

cognitive
emotional
physical/somatic
sensory (sight; hearing; taste, touch, etc.)
time oriented
memory
personality
affect
? maybe more

I've had every type I listed, including out-of-body experiences, so I've experienced and read a lot about this. It's more of a neurological reaction as it's not an 'emotion'. I think the link below might help?

CLINICAL TYPES OF DISSOCIATION

One of the dilemmas of classification of symptoms of dissociation is that these symptoms assume many and varied forms and expressions. They may be emotional, perceptual, cognitive or functional. They may involve altered perception of time, space, sense of self and reality. Emotional expressions may vary from panic to numbing and catatonia. Altered sensory perceptions may vary from anesthesia to analgesia to intolerable pain. Motor expressions frequently involve weakness, paralysis and ataxia, but may also present as tremors, dysarthria, shaking and convulsions (Please see discussion of conversion reaction later). Cognitive symptoms may involve confusion, dysphasia, dyscalculia and severe deficits in attention. Perceptual symptoms include ignoral and neglect. Memory alteration may appear as hypermnesia in the form of flashbacks, or as amnesia in the form of fugue states or more selective traumatic amnesia. The varied symptoms of dissociation therefore mimic the intrinsic bipolar nature of the defining symptoms of PTSD (arousal, reexperiencing, avoidance).

Time perception is often greatly altered, most commonly characterized by a sense of slowing of time (Terr, 1983). Altered perception of self (depersonalization) may manifest as an out-of body experience, or a sense of intense familiarity (de ja` vu) (Pynoos, et al, 1987). In its most extreme expression, depersonalization may encompass perception of several separate states of self in the form of distinct and separate personalities (dissociative identity disorder), each with distinct personality characteristics and even physical attributes (Mayer-Gross, 1935). Strange persons or events may appear familiar, whereas familiar faces and scenes may appear alien and strange.

Trauma Information Pages, Articles: Scaer (2001)

eta: I briefly read some stuff from wiki, etc., and I can see why it's confusing. All it really means is that one thing is disconnected, detached, or separate from another thing/process. If you look at the items I listed, you can get a feel for the bigger picture and context. Many sites talk about 1 facet of dissociation, such as memory or emotional, but if you look at all of them, you can better understand to overarching concepts.