Dissociative Disorders
“fragmentation of the personality”
Minhtri Tran
………
Period: 05
Seat# 10 and 14
History of the disorders
• Definition: conditions that
involve disruptions or
breakdowns of memory,
awareness, identity and/or
perception.
• Involving “fragmentation”
of the personality, in
which some parts of the
personality have become
detached, or dissociated,
from other parts.
Content
• Dissociative disorders include:
– Dissociative amnesia
– Dissociative fugue
– Depersonalization disorder
– Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative amnesia
• Definition: A psychologically
induced loss of memory for
personal information, such as
one’s identity or residence.
• Symptoms: sign of retrograde
amnesia, confusion, suffer
from depression.
• Treatment: unavailable
medical treatment but
therapies such as Clinical
hypnosis, Psychotherapy,
Creative Therapies could work
• Facts:
– alternative name: Psychogenic
amnesia
– loss of the ability to retrieve
stored memory without any
apparent neurological damage
(more like natural cause than
incident)
– patients are unable to retrieve
emotional memories normally
• Case study:
– Edward Lighthard: woke up in
Seattle’s Discovery park, with
supposed dissociative amnesia
Sources:
-http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_amnesia
-Psychology AP* Edition
Dissociative fugue
• Definition: same as
dissociative amnesia, but
with the addition of “flight”
from one’s home, family,
and job.
• Symptoms: creating
physical distance from your
real identity, to runaway,
extreme amnesia.
• Treatments: same methods,
focus mostly on treating the
client to overcome the stress
or trauma that triggered the
fugue
• Facts:
– Fugue: (FEWG) means
“flight”
– Alcohol usage can be one of
the causes
– Domestic violence
• Case study: “Jane Doe,” a
woman with dissociative
fugue who was found near
death in a Florida park,
where she was incoherent
and suffering the effects of
exposure.
Sources:
-http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx
-http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Dissociative_Disorders/hic_Dissociative_Fugue.aspx
-Psychology AP* Edition
Depersonalization disorder
• Definition: an abnormality
involving the sensation that
mind and body have separated,
as in an “out-of-body”
experience.
• Symptoms: characterized by
"switching" to alternate
identities (during stress),
change in voice, look, sound,
mood, etc.
• Treatments: same methods,
focus on treating anxiety and
depression rather than the
disorder itself, eliminate
stressful activities and works.
• Facts:
– Usually, there is no cause for
alarm.
– A study of 30 such cases found
that obsessive-compulsive
disorder and certain
personality disorders often
accompany this condition
– The causes are unknown.
• Case study:
– Maurice Krishaber: experiences
of "self-strangeness“
– Pierre Janet: pointing out that
clients who suffered from
depersonalization were normal
from a sensory viewpoint.
Sources:
- http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx
-http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Dissociative_Disorders/hic_Depersonalization_Disorder.aspx
- Psychology AP* Edition
Dissociative identity disorder
• Definition: a condition in
which an individual displays
multiple identities, or
personalities
• Symptoms: trauma caused
by the unconscious
(psychoanalysis), mood
swing, anxiety or panic
attacks,
• Facts:
– Most such cases occur in
women
– A.K.A. “multiple personality
disorder
– Result of ego defense
mechanisms that do not allow
energy from conflicts and
traumas to escape from the
unconscious mind
• Case study:
– Mary Kendall, devoted herself
to helping others, yet
contained frequent gaps in
memory, developed DID to
cope with her problems.
Sources:
-http://www.fortea.us/english/psiquiatria/dissociative.htm
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Dissociative_Disorders/hic_Dissociative_Identity_Disorder_Multiple_Pers
onality_Disorder.aspx
-Psychology AP* Edition
Go figure!
Enjoy the disorders!