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.

Illustration: Dissociative Disorder
  • 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.