Dissociative Disorders

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Dissociative Disorders

• Psychology Grade 12
• Ms. Rebecca

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I. Dissociation

• Separation of personality parts or mental
  processes from conscious thought.
• In English Zoning out
• Example You may be so involved in listening to
  a Psychology lesson you cant hear when someone
  calls your name.

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A. When is Dissociation a disorder?

• When it is used as a way to avoid stressful
  events or feelings.

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Examples

• Someone loses their memory of a painful
  experience (rape, child abuse etc)
• Lose memory of identity!

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II.Types of Dissociative Disorders

• A. Dissociative Amnesia- Sudden loss of memory,
  usually right after a stressful or traumatic
  event.

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A. Dissociative Amnesia-

• Usually people with Dissociative Amnesia forget
  events during a period of time around the trauma
  but sometimes a person may forget ALL prior
  experience and may be unable to remember his/her
  name, recognize friends and family or recall
  personal information.

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1. How does it get fixed?

• Memory is likely to return just as suddenly as it
  is lost.

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B. Dissociative Fugue

• Another type of Dissociative Disorder
• 1. Multiple personalities
• Different personalities may or may not be aware
  of the others and each personality takes turns
  controlling the person.

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B. Dissociative Fugue

• 2. Each personality is likely to be different
  from the others in ways like
• - voice
• - facial expression
• - perceived age
• - gender
• - physical characteristics

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B. Dissociative Fugue

• 3. Why do people get Dissociative Fugue?
• Usually severely abused as children

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3. Depersonalization Disorder

• -Feelings of detachment from ones mental
  processes or body. Out of body experience.

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3. Depersonalization Disorder

• Why does it happen?
• Often goes with other psychological disorders
• A likely to occur after a stressful event

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III. Explaining Dissociative Disorders

• 2 different views
• 1. Psychoanalitical- people dissociate to
  repress unacceptable urges
• 2. Learning- Learn to not thing about disturbing
  events to avoid feelings of guilt, shame or pain
• Dissociate by forgetting painful events! It
  works! Anxiety is reduced when a trauma is
  forgotten but..

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Homework

• Use your notes and book to fill in the
  Dissociative Disorders worksheet and define
• Key terms
• Dissociative Disorders
• Dissociation
• Dissociative Amnesia
• Dissociative Fugue
• Dissociative Identity Disorder
• Depersonalization Disorder