Dissociative disorders

Dissociative disorders

Dissociative disorders refer to conditions that entail disruptions or breakdowns of recollection or memory, consciousness, personality and/or discernment (Klein and Doane, 1994). There are five dissociative disorders that are listed in the DSM IV: they include: Depersonalization disorder (DSM-IV Codes 300.6) referring to periods of disconnection from self or surrounding that may be expressed as "unreal" -failure to be in control of or "outside of" self-while maintaining consciousness that this is only an emotion and not a realism; Dissociative amnesia (DSM-IV Codes 300.12) previously referred to as Psychogenic Amnesia, manifested destruction of recollection emanating from psychological trauma; Dissociative fugue (DSM-IV Codes 300.13) previously known as Psychogenic Fugue - physical abandonment of recognizable environments and experience of damaged recollection of the past. This may cause uncertainty about real identity and the supposition of a new identity; Dissociative identity disorder (DSM-IV Codes 300.14) previously known Multiple Personality Disorder- the fluctuation of two or more separate personality states with damaged recollection, among personality states, of vital information; and Dissociative disorder not otherwise specific (DSM-IV Codes 300.15) - that can be employed for kinds of pathological disconnection not covered by any of the particular dissociative disorders (Groth-Marnat and Michel, 2000). Conversion disorder is classified as dissociative disorder by the ICD-10 and as somatoform disorder by the DSM-IV (Klein and Doane, 1994).

References:

Groth-Marnat, G. & Michel, N.  (2000). Dissociation, Comorbidity of Dissociative Disorders,

and Childhood Abuse in a Community Sample of Women with Current and Past Bulimia, Social Behavior and Personality, Vol. 28,

Klein, R. M., & Doane, B. K. (1994). Psychological Concepts and Dissociative Disorders

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.