Transcript III. Dissociative Disorders

III. Dissociative Disorders
Chapter 15
• Dissociation refers to the separation of
certain personality components or mental
processes from conscious thought
• In some situations dissociation is normal
▫ Ex—You are so absorbed in a TV
program, that you are not aware that
your mom is calling you
• However, when dissociation occurs as a
way to avoid stressful events or feelings, it
is a sign of a psychological disorder
• People with dissociative disorders may
lose their memory of a particular event or
even forget their identity
A. Types of Dissociative Disorders
• 1. Dissociative Amnesia
▫ characterized by a sudden loss of memory,
usually following a particularly stressful or
traumatic event
▫ A person can’t remember any events that
occurred for a certain amount of time
surrounding the traumatic event
▫ May last for a few hours or for years
▫ Memory likely to return as suddenly as it was
lost and usually the amnesia won’t happen
again
• 2. Dissociative Fugue
▫ Characterized by forgetting personal
information and past events
▫ Also, suddenly relocating from home or work
and taking on a new identity
▫ When the fugue comes to an end, they no
longer remember what happened during the
fugue state
• 3. Dissociative Identity Disorder
▫ Formerly called multiple personality disorder
▫ Involves the existence of two or more
personalities within a single individual
▫ At least two of the personalities take turns
controlling the individual’s behavior
▫ Each personality is likely to be different from
the others in several ways—like voice, facial
expressions, age, and gender
▫ People with this disorder were usually severely
abused in their childhood
▫ This particular disorder has many skeptics.
Many say that this is a disorder created by
therapists who go fishing for multiple
personalities. Rather than being provoked by
trauma, dissociative symptoms tend to be
exhibited by suggestible, fantasy-prone people.
▫ However, there are researchers and clinicians
that maintain that DID is a real disorder.
• 4. Depersonalization Disorder
▫ Depersonalization refers to feelings of
detachment from one’s mental processes or
body
▫ People with this disorder describe feeling as
though they are outside their bodies, observing
themselves at a distance
B. Explaining Dissociative Disorders
• According to Psychoanalytic theory, people
dissociate in order to repress unacceptable urges
• Learning theorists believe that individuals with
this disorder have learned not to think about
disturbing events in order to avoid feelings of
guilt, shame, or pain