People with dissociative identity disorder exhibit two or more separate personalities or identities, each well-defined and distinct from one another. Dissociative Identity Disorderīy far, the most well-known dissociative disorder is dissociative identity disorder (formerly called multiple personality disorder). Individuals with depersonalization/derealization disorder often have difficulty describing their symptoms and may think they are going crazy (APA, 2013). A person who experiences derealization might feel as though they are in a fog or a dream, or that the surrounding world is somehow artificial and unreal. Derealization is conceptualized as a sense of “unreality or detachment from, or unfamiliarity with, the world, be it individuals, inanimate objects, or all surroundings” (APA, 2013, p. Individuals who experience depersonalization might believe their thoughts and feelings are not their own they may feel robotic as though they lack control over their movements and speech they may experience a distorted sense of time and, in extreme cases, they may sense an “out-of-body” experience in which they see themselves from the vantage point of another person. Depersonalization is defined as feelings of “unreality or detachment from, or unfamiliarity with, one’s whole self or from aspects of the self” (APA, 2013, p. Depersonalization/Derealization Disorderĭepersonalization/derealization disorder is characterized by recurring episodes of depersonalization, derealization, or both. However, a study of 82 individuals who enrolled for treatment at a psychiatric outpatient hospital found that nearly 10% met the criteria for dissociative amnesia, perhaps suggesting that the condition is underdiagnosed, especially in psychiatric populations (Foote, Smolin, Kaplan, Legatt, & Lipschitz, 2006). Further, no description of individuals showing dissociative amnesia following a trauma exists in any fictional or nonfictional work prior to 1800 (Pope, Poliakoff, Parker, Boynes, & Hudson, 2006). Notably, scientific publications regarding dissociative amnesia rose during the 1980s and reached a peak in the mid-1990s, followed by an equally sharp decline by 2003 in fact, only 13 cases of individuals with dissociative amnesia worldwide could be found in the literature that same year (Pope, Barry, Bodkin, & Hudson, 2006). Some have questioned the validity of dissociative amnesia (Pope, Hudson, Bodkin, & Oliva, 1998) it has even been characterized as a “piece of psychiatric folklore devoid of convincing empirical support” (McNally, 2003, p. One study of residents in communities in upstate New York reported that about 1.8% experienced dissociative amnesia in the previous year (Johnson, Cohen, Kasen, & Brook, 2006). Most fugue episodes last only a few hours or days, but some can last longer. Some individuals with dissociative amnesia will also experience dissociative fugue (from the word “to flee” in French), whereby they suddenly wander away from their home, experience confusion about their identity, and sometimes even adopt a new identity (Cardeña & Gleaves, 2006). The memory impairments are not caused by ordinary forgetting. An individual with dissociative amnesia is unable to recall important personal information, usually following an extremely stressful or traumatic experience such as combat, natural disasters, or being the victim of violence. Dissociative AmnesiaĪmnesia refers to the partial or total forgetting of some experience or event. Dissociative disorders listed in the DSM-5 include dissociative amnesia, depersonalization/derealization disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Memory and identity become disturbed these disturbances have a psychological rather than physical cause. Discuss the potential role of both social and psychological factors in dissociative identity disorderĭissociative disorders are characterized by an individual becoming split off, or dissociated, from their core sense of self.

Identify and differentiate the symptoms of dissociative amnesia, depersonalization/ derealization disorder, and dissociative identity disorder.Describe the essential nature of dissociative disorders.By the end of this section, you will be able to:

Dissociation vs depersonalization