Dissociative Disorders
Research papers on dissociative disorders from Paper Masters can be written on any aspect of these psychological disorders. Get them custom written on any of the three basic categories of disorders.
Individuals with the psychological disorder known as dissociative disorders experience a sudden loss of memory or may experience a complete change in identity.
There are three basic categories of dissociative disorders:
- Amnesia
- Fugue
- Multiple personality.
Amnesia may be caused by a head injury or extensive psychological stress. With fugue, the individual develops amnesia and travels far away from his or her home and forms a new identity. People with multiple personality disorder develop two or more distinct personalities with distinct memories, characteristics and relationships. The personalities are not aware of each other and usually shift control in times of sudden distress. A majority of individuals who suffer from multiple personality disorders suffered from extensive sexual and physical abuse during childhood.
Categories of Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative disorders fall into several main categories: multiple personality, depersonalization disorder, amnesia, and fugue. Individuals who suffer from dissociative disorders change identities or suffer a sudden memory loss, usually as a result of extreme stress or shock. Persons in a dissociative state separate their emotions and thoughts from a past traumatic experience and lose full awareness of time, self, and external circumstances. Dissociative disorders run on a continuum of mild to severe, whereby a patient may suffer from simple disconnections of motor functions to a complete disconnect between intentional and unintentional behavior. Moreover, dissociative patients may totally disengage sexual behavior from personal awareness, cognitive control, and pleasure.
Symptoms of Dissociative Disorders
Symptoms associated with psychogenic amnesia include a memory loss associated with extreme psychological stress. With fugue, the individual develops amnesia and a new identity and travels far from home. The least common form of dissociative disorder is multiple personality disorder, or dissociative identity disorder. With this form of the disorder, the individual develops two or more personalities, each with its own distinct memories, associations, behaviors and personality. One personality will overtake another personality during times of extreme distress. Depersonalization occurs when the individual develops a feeling of being detached from his or her self or physical body.