Psychology Study Material: Major Categories of Disorders in DSM-IV-TR: Dissociative Disorder
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Major Categories of Disorders in DSM-IV-TR
Dissociative Disorder
A disorder in which critical personality facets, that is normally integrated and working together, become separate.
- This allows stress avoidance and anxiety reduction by way of escape.
- The person uses Defense mechanisms for avoiding stress and to deal with traumatic experiences
- At a time, two or more personalities, may exist within the person
Symptoms include
- Auditory or visual illusion,
- Feeling of confusion and disorientation,
- Severe anxiety attacks,
- Suicidal attempts,
- Inflicting self-injuries
Causes involves
High state of stress
Treatment includes
- •Psychotherapy
- •Self- induced trance
- •Minimize stress
Types of Dissociative Disorder
Dissociative Amnesia
- A state when a selective loss of memory occurs.
- The person is unable to recall specific events often as a result of extreme stress.
- Significant memory loss occurs about personal information that is not due to an organic cause.
- This disorder vanishes abruptly as it begins and rarely re-occurs.
Dissociative Fugue
- Fugue means, “Flight”
- Fugue is a form of amnesia.
- The sufferer takes sudden impulsive trips, at times assuming a new identity.
- Dissociative fugue includes forgetting as well as fleeing from one՚s home for days and weeks, also being unable to remember one՚s identity.
- Unconscious wandering in which the person has limited social contacts.
- In some instances, person may take over another personality that is more sociable than the previous one.
Dissociative Identity Disorder/Multiple Personality
- Rare disorder in which the person may take over two or more personalities that are entirely different from one another
- The first one is usually restrained, restricted and dull but the other one is entirely different from the previous one; one՚s mannerisms, vocal, movements are entirely different from one another.