Somatoform Disorders and Dissociative Disorders

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Somatoform Disorders and Dissociative Disorders
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• Ellen becomes dizzy nauseated in the late
  afternoon- shortly before she expects her husband
  home. Neither her primary care physician nor the
  neurologist he sent her to could identify a
  physical cause. They suspect her symptoms have an
  unconscious psychological origin, possibly
  triggered by her mixed feelings about her
  husband.

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Somatoform Disorders

• Somatoform Disorders psychological disorder in
  which the symptoms take a somatic (bodily) form
  without apparent physical causes
• Culture has a big effect on peoples physical
  complaints
• Psychological explanations of anxiety and
  depression are socially less acceptable in China
  than in Western Culture
• Chinese appear more willing to report physical
  symptoms of their distress
• Bodily complaints have often been observed in
  African cultures as well.

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• One type of somatoform disorder is conversion
  disorder
• A rare somatoform disorder in which a person
  experiences very specific genuine physical
  symptoms for which no physiological basis can be
  found
• Anxiety is converted into a physical symptom
• Hypochondriasis is another form of somatoform
  disorders
• A person interprets normal physical sensations as
  symptoms of a disease
• Typically the person will go through many doctors
  before one will diagnosis them
• Many times the person, and doctors, fail to treat
  the psychological roots of the disorder and only
  treat the physical complaints

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Dissociative Disorders

• Dissociative Disorders disorders in which
  conscious awareness becomes separated
  (dissociated) from previous memories, thoughts,
  and feelings
• Dissociation itself is not so rare
• Many people may have a sense of being unreal, of
  being separated from their body
• Example of this is when you drive somewhere
  without consciously knowing that you were driving

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• A rare dissociative disorder in which a person
  exhibits two or more distinct personalities.
• Used to be called multiple personality disorder
• Each personality has its own identity
• Understanding Dissociative Identity Disorder
• Nicholas Spanos asked college students to pretend
  they were accused murders being examined by a
  psychiatrist
• Under hypnosis most spontaneously expressed a
  second personality

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• Skeptics also find it suspicious that the
  disorder is so localized in time and space
• Between 1930 and 1960 only 2 cases per decade
  were diagnosis
• In 1980 when the DSM contained the first formal
  code the number shot up to 20,000
• Outside of North America disorder is much less
  prevalent
• In India and Japan it is practically nonexistent
• Is this a cultural phenomenon?
• Skeptics feel some practitioners that use
  hypnosis go fishing for personalities

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• Other psychologists disagree finding support of
  DID
• Handedness switches from personality to
  personality
• Visual acuity and eye muscle balance changes
• Both psychoanalysis and learning perspectives
  agree that this is a way of handling anxiety
• Psychoanalysis see this as a defense against the
  anxiety cause by the eruption of unacceptable
  impulses
• Learning view this as behavior reinforced by
  anxiety reduction
• Some place dissociative disorders under
  post-traumatic disorders because of their natural
  protective responses

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Theres Something About Eve

• Chris Sizemores story gave visibility to DID