Dissociative%20Disorders

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Dissociative Disorders

• Dissociative Identity Disorder
• Dissociative Amnesia
• Dissociative Fugue
• Depersonalization Disorder

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• A. The presence of two or more distinct
  identities or personality states
• B. At least two of these identities or
  personality states recurrently take control of
  the persons behavior
• C. Inability to recall important personal
  information that is too extensive to be explained
  by ordinary forgetfulness
• D. Not due to a GMC or substance

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Identities
• At least two of these recurrently take control of
  a persons behavior
• Can be categorized into three types
• Core identity superego
• 1st alternate identity id
• 2nd alternate identity ego

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Prevalence
• Up for debate
• Rates have increased dramatically over few
  decades
• First case reported in the 1850s
• Several cases in 1880s-1900s
• By the 1970s, only about 200 cases in all
• Now, some psychologists claim that up to 1 of
  the general population has this disorder
• Individual clinicians are not reporting having
  dozens to hundreds of such clients

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Explanations for increasing prevalence
• Increased public awareness of the disorder
• Changes in the diagnostic criteria for
  schizophrenia
• Therapists may be actively looking for DID
• Prevalence, continued
• Rates very uneven across countries
• Rates very uneven across clinicians within
  countries
• The rates of this disorder is very
  controversialsome psychologists doubt its
  existence at all

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Risk Factors
• Severe child abuse, especially sexual abuse
  (reported in 95 of cases
• Remembered or Recovered???
• Having generous psychiatric medical coverage

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Question of Validity
• Studies show differences in psychological test
  results and physiological states between alters
• Alternative theories
• Could be due to distinct personalities
• Could be due to role enactments
• Extremely heated controversy over iatrogenesis
  vs. natural occurrence (iatrogenesis caused
  by treatment)

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Can people actually dissociate?
• Have you had a dissociative experience?
• Common dissociative experiences
• Reading a paragraph and then having no
  recollection of what you read
• Driving somewhere and not knowing how you got
  there
• Talking to someone and not knowing what youre
  actually talking about

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Perhaps there is an underlying continuum

Normal Dissociative Experiences
Dissociative Identity Disorder
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Dissociative Amnesia

• One or more episodes of inability to recall
  important personal information, usually of a
  traumatic or stressful nature, that is too
  extensive to be explained by ordinary
  forgetfulness
• Not better explained by a another mental disorder
  and is not due to a GMC or substance
• Symptoms cause clinically significant distress or
  impairment in functioning

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Dissociative Fugue

1. Sudden, unexpected travel away from home or ones
   customary place of work, with inability to recall
   ones past
2. Confusion about personal identity or assumption
   of a new identity (partial or complete)
3. Not better explained by a another mental disorder
   and is not due to a GMC or substance
4. Symptoms cause clinically significant distress or
   impairment in functioning

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Depersonalization Disorder

1. Persistent or recurrent experiences of feeling
   detached from, and as if one is an outside
   observer of, ones mental processes or body
2. During the depersonalization experience, reality
   testing remains intact
3. Not better explained by a another mental disorder
   and is not due to a GMC or substance
4. Symptoms cause clinically significant distress or
   impairment in functioning