DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER
In dissociative disorder, the person experience disruption of consciousness-he or she
lose track of self-awareness, memory, and identity. Patients with dissociative disorders often
meet criteria for somatic symptom disorders, and vice versa—those with somatic symptom
disorders often meet the diagnostic criteria for dissociative disorders.
Dissociation involves the failure of consciousness to perform its usual role of
integrating our cognitions, emotions, motivations, and other aspects of experience in our
awareness.
There are three major dissociative disorders: dissociative amnesia,
depersonalization/derealization disorder and dissociative identity disorder (also known as
multiple personality disorder).
1. Dissociative Amnesia
The person with dissociative amnesia is unable to
recall important personal information, usually
information about some traumatic experience. The
holes in memory are too extensive to be explained by
ordinary forgetfulness. The information is not
permanently lost, but it cannot be retrieved during the
episode of amnesia, which may last for as short a
period as several hours or as long as several years.
The amnesia usually disappears as suddenly as it
began, with complete recovery and only a small
chance of recurrence.
Most often the memory loss involves information
about some part of a traumatic experience, such as
witnessing the sudden death of a loved one. More
rarely the amnesia is for entire events during a
circumscribed period of distress. During the period of
amnesia, the person’s behaviour is otherwise unremarkable, except that the memory loss may
cause some disorientation.
Typically, dissociative disorders involve deficits in explicit memory but not implicit
memory. Explicit memory involves the conscious recall of experiences—for example,
explicit memory would be involved in describing a bicycle you had as a child. While the
implicit memory of the people with Dissociative Amnesia remains intact.
Proposed DSM-5 Criteria
for Dissociative Amnesia
• Inability to remember important
personal information, usually of a
traumatic or stressful nature, that is too
extensive to be ordinary forgetfulness.
• The amnesia is not explained by
substances, or by other medical or
psychological conditions
• Specify dissociative fugue subtype if:
❖ the amnesia includes inability to
recall one’s past, confusion about
identity, or assumption of a new
identity, and
❖ sudden, unexpected travel away
from home or work
