dissociative identity disorder thesis statement

• Acronyms and Glossary

Myths and Misconceptions

• DSM-5 and ICD 10
• Presentation

Alter Functions

• Non-Human Alters
• Systems and Subsystems
• Internal Worlds

Switching and Passive Influence

• Time Loss, Black Outs, and Co-con
• DID in the Media
• I Am Not Sybil
• Abuse of Males
• Reactions to Disclosure
• Traumatic Bonding
• Primary Structural Dissociation
• Secondary Structural Dissociation
• Tertiary Structural Dissociation
• Structural Dissociation and Cores
• Problems with the Theory
• Synthesis of Models
• Reactive Attachment Disorder
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Complex-Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• Dissociative Amnesia
• Depersonalization / Derealization
• OSDD-1 Compared to DID
• Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures
• Factitious Disorder
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Antisocial Personality Disorder
• Narcissistic Personality Disorder
• Depressive and Bipolar Disorders
• Anxiety Disorders
• Feeding and Eating Disorders
• Developmental Disorders
• Integration

Grounding Techniques

• DID in Children
• DID Around the World
• Iatrogenic and Sociocognitive Models
• DID Validity
• False Memories
• Repressed Memory Validity
• Assessing Repressed Memories
• Factitious and Malingered DID
• Hotlines and Crisis Resources
• Reporting Child Abuse
• About the Author
• Privacy Policy
• Acknowledgements
• Participate in Research!

MISSION STATEMENT

This site aims to fill a void of comprehensive yet accessible resources pertaining to trauma and dissociation. It serves to promote awareness and understanding of a variety of topics related to dissociative identity disorder, other dissociative disorders, trauma, and trauma's effects. It achieves this by presenting current research and validated sources to the general public in a more easily understandable form. A secondary aim of this website is to promote connecting dissociative trauma survivors to research studies in order to contribute to scientific progress on these subjects.

DISSOCIATION

Dissociation is a disconnection between one’s conscious awareness and aspects of one’s environment, experiences, or perceptions. Dissociation is very common, so much so that some claim that it is the third most common mental health symptom. Individuals can experience dissociation for many reasons. Causes or triggers can vary from temporary stress to clinical anxiety to chronic childhood trauma . In some cases, dissociation can serve as a coping mechanism and buffer individuals from overwhelming life circumstances. However, when dissociation is severe or long lasting, it can be disabling.

DISSOCIATIVE

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) includes five dissociative disorders. These are dissociative identity disorder (DID) , dissociative amnesia (DA) , depersonalization/derealization disorder (DPDR) , other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD), and unspecified dissociative disorder (UDD) . However, these are not the only conditions in which dissociation plays a prominent role. Somatic symptom disorder , conversion disorder , trauma-and-stressor-related disorders , and borderline personality disorder can also be conceptualized as primarily or often dissociative in nature. Additionally, dissociation has been found in many individuals with anxiety disorders , mood disorders , eating disorders , schizophrenia spectrum disorders, and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

Despite this, dissociation is poorly known and poorly understood. Neither the general public nor most mental health practitioners know much about dissociation, how to recognize it, or how to treat it. As a result, many individuals with clinical dissociation or dissociative disorders suffer in silence.

DISSOCIATIVE IDENTITY DISORDER (DID)

Out of all of the dissociative disorders, DID is perhaps the best known and yet the most poorly understood. Previously known as multiple personality disorder, DID is plagued by myths and misconceptions that are spread by the media, general public, and professionals alike. Though a wealth of evidence supports that the disorder results from repeated childhood trauma, DID is frequently portrayed as the result of fantasy, the need to repress socially unacceptable desires, a single moderately traumatic childhood experience, or adult trauma.Though DID is in no way related to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, the media consistently confuses these conditions. Focus is always aimed at the most unique aspect of dissociative identity disorder, the numerous alternate personalities that it results in, but attention is rarely given to symptoms of derealization and depersonalization, to co-morbid posttraumatic stress disorder or depression, or to the intense feelings of denial, shame, betrayal, and isolation that are so common among survivors. Time loss is a well known symptom of DID, but passive influence is not. Doubt in the disorder is treated like a personal position on the validity of a myth instead of a sign of pervasive ignorance that emphasizes the need for current research to be more widely shared and understood.

Popular Pages

There are many myths and misconceptions surrounding dissociative identity disorder, such as what the disorder is, how it forms, and how it is treated.

Switching refers to one alter taking control of the body at the expense of another alter, being given control by another alter, or gaining prominence over another alter. Passive influence can be described as intrusions from alters that are not currently prominent in the mind or using the body.

Comparing DID and OSDD-1

The most important difference between individuals with DID and OSDD-1 is the way in which they experience their alters. While alters for individuals with DID can be highly distinct and are associated with some amnesia, one or both of these are not the case for those wih OSDD-1.

It is important to remember that different systems have different needs, and systems may not have an alter for every listed job. Alters may hold multiple roles or roles that are unique to the system, and an alter's roles can change over time.

Integrating Dissociated Parts

Integration is lowering dissociative barriers to gain consistent access to all memories, thoughts, and emotions. It can additionally involve (and is often used synonymously with) fusion of alters. It is a common treatment for parts-based dissociative disorders.

Grounding techniques are techniques that are used to prevent, dull, or distract from dissociation, flashbacks, switching, panic attacks, self harm, addiction cravings, or other negative emotions, internal experiences, or impulses. They work by engaging the senses and occupying the mind in a non-destructive fashion.

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Dissociative identity disorder: diagnosis and treatment

• Masters Thesis
• Strohman, Jennifer Brooke
• Rubalcava, Luis A.
• Dorsey, Don
• Del Rio, Augusto Britton
• Educational Psychology and Counseling
• California State University, Northridge
• Dissertations, Academic -- CSUN -- Education.
• 2016-04-13T23:27:07Z
• http://hdl.handle.net/10211.3/165498
• by Jennifer Brooke Strohman
• California State University, Northridge. Department of Education.
• Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-44)

Items in ScholarWorks are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms Essay

Signs and symptoms, why some have it and others don’t.

Dissociative identity disorder, also known as split personality, is defined as the state or condition in which one displays different personalities. It is normally diagnosed by psychiatrists and conveys a mental illness in which the victim may experience even more than two identities. Interestingly, each state has a distinct way of relating to life normally, this includes both physical and emotional behaviors (Carrion & Steiner, 2000, p. 353-359). They are normally found to have different personalities in terms of blood flow and pressure; a shift in their blood pressure and the flow of blood to the brain causes an instant change in personality. In some cases, the experience can be more frequent causing multiple identities, and such persons can be seen to depict more than two personalities depending on the kind of environment or setting he/she finds. The disease is said to occur about 9 times in females as it does in males and has a low rate of just 3% in patients put in Psychiatric health care institutions. However, there has been skepticism over its existence and why it is found on other people and not others under the same conditions. The frequency of its occurrence is also unclear due to the controversies by the professionals on its symptoms, existence, and best treatment methods (WebMD, LLC., 2010, p. 1-4).

Even though the causes of this disease has not been proven, thanks to the controversies surrounding it, there have been psychological theories that have been put across to predict its development and are mostly linked with babyhood trauma; this is a stage in a life of a child when he/she is frightened of something he/she had loved earlier; an example is a parent the child had trusted so much, then all of a sudden, the parent abuses him/her intensely, this will cause dissociation. They believe that when a child undergoes trauma, it de-links the memories and this may result in DID if the dissociation is extreme. Such extreme extent is accompanied by the lapse in memory since there is a de-link in the brain (Edwards, 2010, p. 1-6). It is quite possible to develop the disease if one of the family members suffers from it but does not necessarily mean that it is hereditary. Researches show that a recipe of biological and ecological factors can cause DID. It is also quite clear that those who experience a recurrence of past history like life-menacing experiences tend to develop DID; this may include instabilities during vital development stages of babyhood. Other causes associated with DID are abuse which can be physical or emotional as well as neglect by parents who can have the responsibility of taking full care of their children. Moreover, unpredictable, violent, and frightening families may also cause the disease. Its depiction is always rampant in childhood, especially on those with crushing antecedents, or stress. Children tend to trust their guardians; this trust can change into the development of DID in any event of incapacitation by the one he/she trusts (Sadock B. & J., 2002, p. 34).

Dissociative Identity Disorder portrays numerous symptoms although medics still debate over them to have a clear way forward on the correct signs. This may include, a lapse in remembering important events like the centennials of the patient accompanied by blackouts, for instance, the patient may go somewhere without remembering how it happened (Escobar, 2004, p. 5). Other symptoms include forgetting what they had previously said on a regular basis, multiple personalities, possessing things that they cannot ascertain how it got into their custody, always seeming unfamiliar with people who know them well, writing in different handwritings, disorders in sleep, failure to recognize oneself, tendencies to attempt committing suicide, panic which arises from trauma and unswerving anxiety. Feeling that you are many or tendencies to hearing voices speaking to you; some victims keeps hearing voices that they don’t even recognize. In addition, victims may suffer depression and sudden shifts in moods (Edwards, 2010, p.1-6).

It has been noted with relief that most of the children who undergo difficult situations in early life seldom get DID. These children, in most cases, have undergone stress throughout their lives, some have encountered abuses from their elders while still others have had a rigorous history of trauma but escapes DID (Escobar, 2004, p. 5). Various reasons have been raised on this unique happening although very little has been established. One possible reason for this is proposed to be associated with the complexity of the brain. Since the brain is not fully understood, it is quite difficult to ascertain its response to the adverse conditions that can cause DID (Carrion & Steiner, 2000, p. 353-359). It is therefore thought that most of those who actually endure severe conditions develop resilience to the disease and are spared. This theory can also be supported by the fact that people tend to get used to things they experience overtime; some children who incur several bad experiences have a propensity to get used to it and therefore escapes from an attack, while those who do not frequently experience the causes of DID are vulnerable because their emotional status gets an instant shift with a new attitude (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 12).

Another possible reason is the fact that the symptoms in children tend to differ from those noticed in adults; children react differently to the situation as compared to adults. At this stage, they are faster in grasping information and have very sharp memories, any kind of abuse triggers shock and stigma. The nature of the origin and reactions to different situations depicts differences in the symptoms of the disease since it has numerous signs. This complicates its diagnosis, and some practitioners even think it is a myth based on culture since it is significantly witnessed in North America. Some findings based on psychology conflict with the idea of the difference in resilience of the brain by proposing that disparity in occurrence to individuals is attributed to the degree of changes in the muscles, period of recording, changes in mood, and degree of concentration. Other factors that have been suggested to be affecting individual response to DID show that it has some hereditary factors; this theory argues that those with hereditary links to this kind of disorder are more prone to attract it. Conversely, it tries to explain the fact that those without the links have some form of resilience against the disease. It, therefore, follows that these two people when subjected to the same environment and conditions, the one with a link to it will be exposed to more danger (WebMD, LLC., 2010, p. 1-4).

• American Psychiatric Association.(2000). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. (4 th ed.), Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). Washington, D.C.
• Carrion, V.G. & Steiner, H. (2000). Trauma and dissociation in delinquent adolescents . Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; 39(3): 353-359.
• Edwards, R. D. (2010). Dissociative Identity Disorder . Medicine net, Inc. Web.
• Escobar, J. (2004). Transcultural aspects of dissociative and somatoform disorders . Psychiatric Times; 21(5).
• Sadock, B.J. & Sadock, V.A. (2002). Kaplan and Sadock’s Synopsis of Psychiatry: Behavioral Sciences/Clinical Psychiatry (9th Ed.). Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. ISBN 0781731836 .
• WebMD, LLC. (2010). Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder) . MentalHealthCenter. Web.
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, December 24). Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms. https://ivypanda.com/essays/dissociative-identity-disorder-symptoms/

"Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms." IvyPanda , 24 Dec. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/dissociative-identity-disorder-symptoms/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms'. 24 December.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms." December 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/dissociative-identity-disorder-symptoms/.

1. IvyPanda . "Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms." December 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/dissociative-identity-disorder-symptoms/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Dissociative Identity Disorder Symptoms." December 24, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/dissociative-identity-disorder-symptoms/.

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Home > School, College, or Department > Honors > Honors Theses > 1365

University Honors Theses

Dissociative identity disorder: a literature review.

Savannah M. DeMicoli , Portland State University Follow

First Advisor

Karlyn Adams-Wiggins

Date of Award

Spring 6-2023

Document Type

Degree name.

Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Psychology and University Honors

Multiple personality -- Research, Multiple personality -- Treatment, Psychic trauma in children

10.15760/honors.1394

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), previously referred to as Multiple Personalities Disorder, has been historically misrepresented in the media and excluded from professional training. This literature review describes the information presented in various research studies to illustrate what DID is, the theoretical models that have been used in application to DID, the role of childhood trauma, as well as successful treatment methods and accessibility of resources. In understanding DID, it is necessary to look at the disorder’s prevalence, background, and major symptoms of amnesia and switching between personality states. The theoretical models that will be covered include the Sociocognitive/Fantasy Model and the Trauma Model, as well as the neurobiological perspectives that support the link between trauma and the development of DID. An overarching theme in the literature reviewed was the recognition of the Trauma Model of DID as the dominant theorization. As such, childhood trauma arises as a significant topic in the understanding of DID symptom development. There are various treatment methods used in application to DID, but a common theme within the literature reviewed was the goal of identity integration, which implies communication and better functioning between alters. The research question going into this review was "What does the existing literature tell us about Dissociative Identity Disorder and its treatments and origin?". More extensive research in this area would not only improve DID patients' accessibility to treatment but also decrease the misconceptions and stigmas that are perpetuated in society and social media.

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Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/40299

Recommended Citation

DeMicoli, Savannah M., "Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Literature Review" (2023). University Honors Theses. Paper 1365. https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.1394

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Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Literature Review

• Albana Antuanette Reategui Brigham Young University

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a disorder that has a big burden in the everyday life of the patient, and it’s not well-known because of the often-wrong idea portrayed by the media. To better understand this disorder, in this review we looked at four important questions. First, we looked at the prevalence of DID to have an idea of how many people have it, and we found it is not as rare as it is believed. Second, we looked at how it develops and we found three possibilities: Trauma Model, Fantasy Model, and a severe symptom of Borderline Personality Disorder. Third, we looked at the existent treatments and found that the trauma-focused psychotherapy is the preferred way of treatment, but we also found that quetiapine helps, as well as the use of relational psychoanalytic treatment. Lastly, we concluded that there is not a lot of research done in any area of DID and that is where we should focus on doing more research so we can know more about a forgotten disorder that affects the lives of so many people.

Author Biography

Albana antuanette reategui, brigham young university.

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