Dissociative Disorders

1. Dissociative Disorders • Similar to somatoform in some ways • Often not that concerned about memory loss • Often can be seen as form of escape

2. Types of Dissociative Disorders • Depersonalization Disorder • Dissociative Amnesia (Generalized vs. Selective). • Dissociative Fugue • Dissociative Trance Disorder • Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder).

3. Dissociative Disorders • Involves sudden and temporary alteration in functions of consciousness • Avoids stress and gratifies needs in manner allowing person to deny personal responsibility • Escapes from core personality and personality processes • Quite rare

4. Dissociative Disorders Dissociative Disorders are typified by alterations in sense of self and reality Characteristic features include a sense of depersonalization or derealization.

5. Dissociative Disorders Depersonalization is when one’s sense of your own reality is altered (your own personality and sense of self may be fragmented). Derealization is best described as when your sense of reality of the external world is altered. The external world feels unreal and unfamiliar

6. Depersonalization • Feelings of detachment or estrangement • External world is perceived as unreal • May have : • Sensory anesthesia • Lack of affective response

7. Dissociative Amnesia • Usually presents as a retrospectively reported gap or series of gaps in recall for aspects of the individuals life history. • Generalized amnesia: unable to remember anything, including their sense of who they are. May be a lifelong condition. • Localized amnesia: person fails to recall events that occurred during a circumscribed period of time, usually the first few hours following a profoundly disturbing event.

8. Dissociative Amnesia • Selective amnesia: person can recall some, but not all of the events during a circumscribed period of time. • Continuous amnesia: person fails to recall events subsequent to a specific time up to and including present • Duration of events can be minutes to years.

9. Dissociative Fugue • Sudden unexpected travel away from home or place of work with inability to recall one’s past • Confusion about personal identity or assumption of new identity

10. Fugue • Example: Police officer

11. Dissociative Identity Disorder • Multiple Personality Disorder (not schizophrenia) • Presence of two or more distinct identities or personality states

12. Dissociative Identity Disorder • Some believe that DID reflects a failure to integrate various aspects of identity, memory, and conciousness.

13. Dissociative Identity Disorder • Hypnotizable

14. Causal Factors in Dissociative Disorders • Abuse? • Is DID an extreme case of PTSD, or a variation?

15. Three Faces of Eve • Video on DVD 2 on Video Segments in Abnormal Psychology 2nd Edition

16. Treatment • We don’t know much about dissociative amnesia or fugue states; assumed that they “get better” on their own. • For DID, attempts have been made to use conventional strategies to “reintegrate” the different identities. • Some PTSD treatment strategies have been utilized, including identifying triggers or cues that provoke memories or dissociation • The other goal is to confront and relive the trauma. • Currently, no accepted empirically validated treatments for DID exist.