Dissociative Disorders “fragmentation of the personality ”

1. Dissociative Disorders“fragmentation of the personality” Minhtri Tran………Period: 05Seat# 10 and 14

2. History of the disorders • Definition: conditions that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception. • Involving “fragmentation” of the personality, in which some parts of the personality have become detached, or dissociated, from other parts.

3. Content • Dissociative disorders include: • Dissociative amnesia • Dissociative fugue • Depersonalization disorder • Dissociative identity disorder

4. Dissociative amnesia • Definition: A psychologically induced loss of memory for personal information, such as one’s identity or residence. • Symptoms: sign of retrograde amnesia, confusion, suffer from depression. • Treatment: unavailable medical treatment but therapies such as Clinical hypnosis, Psychotherapy, Creative Therapies could work • Facts: • alternative name: Psychogenic amnesia •  loss of the ability to retrieve stored memory without any apparent neurological damage (more like natural cause than incident) • patients are unable to retrieve emotional memories normally • Case study: • Edward Lighthard: woke up in Seattle’s Discovery park, with supposed dissociative amnesia

5. Sources: -http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_amnesia -Psychology AP* Edition

6. Dissociative fugue • Definition: same as dissociative amnesia, but with the addition of “flight” from one’s home, family, and job. • Symptoms: creating physical distance from your real identity, to runaway, extreme amnesia. • Treatments: same methods, focus mostly on treating the client to overcome the stress or trauma that triggered the fugue • Facts: • Fugue: (FEWG) means “flight” • Alcohol usage can be one of the causes • Domestic violence • Case study: “Jane Doe,” a woman with dissociative fugue who was found near death in a Florida park, where she was incoherent and suffering the effects of exposure.

7. Sources: -http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Dissociative_Disorders/hic_Dissociative_Fugue.aspx Psychology AP* Edition

8. Depersonalization disorder • Definition: an abnormality involving the sensation that mind and body have separated, as in an “out-of-body” experience. • Symptoms: characterized by "switching" to alternate identities (during stress), change in voice, look, sound, mood, etc. • Treatments: same methods, focus on treating anxiety and depression rather than the disorder itself, eliminate stressful activities and works. • Facts: • Usually, there is no cause for alarm. • A study of 30 such cases found that obsessive-compulsive disorder and certain personality disorders often accompany this condition • The causes are unknown. • Case study: • Maurice Krishaber: experiences of "self-strangeness“ • Pierre Janet: pointing out that clients who suffered from depersonalization were normal from a sensory viewpoint.

9. Sources: - http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/dissociative_disorders/hic_dissociative_amnesia.aspx -http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Dissociative_Disorders/hic_Depersonalization_Disorder.aspx - Psychology AP* Edition

10. Dissociative identity disorder • Definition: a condition in which an individual displays multiple identities, or personalities • Symptoms: trauma caused by the unconscious (psychoanalysis), mood swing, anxiety or panic attacks, • Facts: • Most such cases occur in women • A.K.A. “multiple personality disorder • Result of ego defense mechanisms that do not allow energy from conflicts and traumas to escape from the unconscious mind • Case study: • Mary Kendall, devoted herself to helping others, yet contained frequent gaps in memory, developed DID to cope with her problems.

11. Sources: -http://www.fortea.us/english/psiquiatria/dissociative.htm http://my.clevelandclinic.org/disorders/Dissociative_Disorders/hic_Dissociative_Identity_Disorder_Multiple_Personality_Disorder.aspx -Psychology AP* Edition

12. Go figure! Enjoy the disorders!