Dissociative Disorders Flashcards
Hallmarks of dissociative disorders
Disruption of who you are
Interruption of identity without awareness that it’s happening
Person isn’t consciously aware of what he/she is doing
Depersonalization/derealization disorder
Persistent, recurrent episodes of depersonalization, derealization, or both
Person is aware of what is real and what isn’t
Depersonalization
Feeling of not being yourself for a period of time
“Observer” of self (out of body)
Derealization
Feeling of the world not being real
Dreamlike state
Epidemiology of depersonalization/derealization disorder
Episodes are common (about half of people have them at one point or another), but disorder is rare
Sex: equal in male and female
Age of onset: adolescence (time of development of coping mechanisms)
Often associated with PTSD
Dissociative amnesia
Inability to recall important personal information, usually of a traumatic nature (similar to repression)
Not due to brain injury
Localized amnesia
Forgetting the trauma itself
Selective amnesia
Forgetting the details of the trauma
Generalized amnesia
Forgetting anything before the trauma took place
Systematized amnesia
Forgetting a specific piece of information (ex- having a brother)
Continuous amnesia
Forgetting things before and after the trauma
Dissociative fugue
Forgetting who you are, moving to a new place, and taking on a new identity
Epidemiology of dissociative amnesia
Sex: females 2:1
Age of onset: anytime (consistent with trauma)
Course: usually sudden onset, can last minutes to decades, often reversible
Dissociative identity disorder
2 or more distinct personality states (“timeshare” body- many different people inhabit)
When 1 identity has control, the others don’t know what’s happening
Gaps in recall of everyday events/traumas
Personalities in dissociative identity disorder
Main personality is host
Secondary personalities are alters
# of alters can range from 2 to hundreds (average is 15)
Alters have ranges in age, gender, and abilities
Epidemiology of dissociative identity disorder
Drastic increase in number of cases since release of movie Sybil in 1973
Rates uneven across countries/clinicians (90% of cases are diagnosed by 10% of clinicians)
Sex: equal
Typical presentation of dissociative identity disorder
Vague psychological complaints
History of abuse (often child sexual abuse)
Suicide attempts and/or self-mutilation
History of multiple therapists and diagnoses
Psychodynamic perspective on dissociative identity disorder
Repression of trauma
Other personalities develop to cope
Iatrogenic perspective on dissociative identity disorder
DID is developed in treatment
Suggestibility: trauma is suggested and didn’t actually happen
Reinforcement: people want to please therapist by confirming his/her diagnosis
Role play: therapist teases apart “personalities”
Belief that dissociative identity disorder is factitious
People fake having multiple personalities
Minority of psychologists believe this
Treatments for dissociative identity disorder
Address underlying trauma
Remove gain of attention
Personality integration: adapt host to take on roles of alters (limited success)
Coping skills training: reduce underlying stress and impairment (ex- journaling between personalities to reduce gaps in memory)
Identity disturbance due to prolonged and intense coercive persuasion
Struggling with identity as a result of brainwashing
Dissociative trance
Losing oneself in a trance
If part of religious ceremony or meditation, then not a disorder
