Dissociative Phenomena

1
Dissociative Disorders Overview

• Dissociative Phenomena
• Depersonalization
• Altered Perception of Self
• Derealization
• Altered Perception of World
• Common Experience

2
Depersonalization

• Key Features
• Depersonalization or Derealization
• Causes Significant Distress
• Impairs Functioning
• Usually Runs a Chronic Course

3
Depersonalization Disorder

• Causes?
• Show cognitive deficits in attention, short-term
  memory, and spatial reasoning
• Cognitive deficits correspond with reports of
  tunnel vision and mind emptiness
• Such persons are easily distracted
• Treatment
• Little is known

4
Dissociative Amnesia

• Key Features
• Psychogenic Memory Loss
• Generalized
• Unable to remember anything
• Localized or Selective
• Failure to recall specific events
• Assumed to be traumatic events

5
Dissociative Fugue

• Key Features
• Memory Loss
• Specific Incident or Trigger
• Related to Dissociative Amnesia
• Move to Another Location
• Unaware How They Arrived
• May Assume a New Identity
• Fugue Often Ends Abruptly

6
Dissociative Amnesia and Fugue

• Causes
• Little is known
• Apparently onset by trauma
• Treatment
• Usually get better without treatment
• Most eventually remember what they have forgotten

7
Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Key Features
• Previously Labeled Multiple Personality Disorder
• Persons Identity or Personality Is Dissociated
• Adoption of Several New Identities
• May Be 100
• Identities Display Unique Characteristics

8
Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Causes?
• Severe Childhood Abuse
• 97 of Cases
• Escape Into Fantasy World
• Become Someone Else to Survive
• Closely related to PTSD
• Suggestibility
• Treatment
• Integration of Identities
• Identify and Neutralize Triggers for Switch,
  including memories of trauma
• Similar to PTSD

9
Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Other Related Features
• Hypnotizability
• Hypnosis Seen as a Form of Dissociation
• Suggestibility
• Related to DID?

10
Abuse Controversial Issues

• Recovered Memory Syndrome
• False vs. Real Memories
• Can False Memories Be Created?
• Do Therapists Plant Memories?
• Consequences of the Debate