Dissociative Disorders

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Dissociative Disorders
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Dissociative Disorders

• A category of psychological disorders in which
  extreme and frequent disruptions of awareness,
  memory, and personal identity impair the ability
  to function
• What is dissociation?
• literally a dis-association of memory
• person suddenly becomes unaware of some aspect
  of their identity or history
• unable to recall except under special
  circumstances (e.g., hypnosis)
• Mild dissociative experiences are quite common
  and completely normal (daydreaming, TV Face)

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Dissociative Amnesia

• Memory loss the only symptom
• Partial or total inability to recall important
  personal information.
• Often selective loss surrounding traumatic events
• person still knows identity and most of their
  past
• Can also be global
• loss of identity without replacement with a new
  one
• Memory can return just as suddenly as it was
  lost.
• Not caused by a biological problem. It is
  psychological.

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Dissociative AmnesiaExample

• Margie and her brother were recently victims of a
  robbery. Margie was not injured, but her brother
  was killed when he resisted the robbers. Margie
  was unable to recall any details from the time of
  the accident until four days later.

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Dissociative Fugue

• Forgetting personal info and past events while
  suddenly relocating and taking on a new identity.
  Almost always after a traumatic event.
• leaves home
• develops a new identity
• apparently no recollection of former life
• called a fugue state
• If fugue wears off
• old identity recovers
• new identity is totally forgotten

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Dissociative FugueExample

• Jay, a high school physics teacher in New York
  City, disappeared three days after his wife
  unexpectedly left him for another man. Six
  months later, he was discovered tending bar in
  Miami Beach. Calling himself Martin, he claimed
  to have no recollection of his past life and
  insisted that he had never been married.

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Originally known as multiple personality
  disorder
• 2 or more distinct personalities within the same
  person
• Personalities may or may not know the other
  exists
• VERY rare and controversial disorder
• Examples include Sybil, Trudy Chase, Chris
  Sizemore (Eve)
• Has been tried as a criminal defense but is
  rarely successful. (see the movie, Primal Fear)

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Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Pattern typically starts prior to age 10
  (childhood)
• Most people with disorder are women
• Most report recall of physical or sexual abuse as
  children and show symptoms of PTSD

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Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)Example

• Norma has frequent memory gaps and cannot account
  for her whereabouts during certain periods of
  time. While being interviewed by a clinical
  psychologist, she began speaking in a childlike
  voice. She claimed that her name was Donna and
  that she was only six years old. Moments later,
  she seemed to revert to her adult voice and had
  no recollection of speaking in a childlike voice
  or claiming that her name was Donna.

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DID Facts

• Alternate personalities, often called alters, may
  be of widely varying ages and of different
  genders.
• Alters are not really separate people rather,
  they constitute a system of mind. At different
  times, different alters take over. Persons
  primary personality often not aware of the
  alters.
• Some researchers report physiological differences
  among the different personalities within a single
  individual (different allergies eyeglass
  prescriptions).
• Symptoms of amnesia and memory problems are
  almost always present. People with DID typically
  have numerous other psychiatric and physical
  problems along with a chaotic personal history.

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Tony describes his life with multiple
personalities, some of which we see emerging in a
therapy session. Dr. Frank Putnam, at the
National Institute of Mental Health, describes
the results of testing on Tony and other
individuals with multiple personality disorder.
Multiple Personality Disorder

• Click HERE to view or on the box to the right (8
  min)
• Watch shorter version see Tony go between his
  alters (4 min).
• Hear the story of Herschel Walker (3 min).

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Depersonalization Disorder
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Out of Body Experience

• Depersonalization person feels as if they are
  outside their bodies, observing themselves from a
  distance.
• Usually happens after a stressful event.

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Possible Causes of Dissociative Disorders

• Psychoanalytic Theory people dissociate to
  repress unacceptable urges.
• People forget disturbing urges or develop
  personalities to take responsibility away from
  themselves.
• Learning Theory Forgetting or being someone
  else is negatively reinforced because it reduces
  stress.
• Cognitive Biological Theorists do NOT have an
  explanation for dissociative disorders.