Causes and Pathogenesis of Dissociative Disorder - Essay Example

Dissociative amnesia occurs when an individual blocks out particular information, often associated with a traumatic or stressful event, leaving her or him unable to recall important personal information. There are several subtypes of dissociative amnesia: Localized amnesia is experienced by a person who does not have a memory of traumatic incidents that happened. Memory loss is localized for a particular duration of time. For instance, a person who has survived a car accident and does not remember this experience until the third day after the experience has localized amnesia (Spiegel, & Cardeña, 2001).

Generalized amnesia occurs when an individual’s amnesia encompasses her or his whole life. Selective amnesia occurs when an individual can recall only small portions of incidents that happened in a particular duration of time. For instance, a person who has been abused might remember some portions of the sequence of incidents around this abuse. Systematized amnesia is distinguished by a memory loss for a particular type of information. An individual with this type of disorder may, for instance, lack all memory on one particular member of the family.

Depersonalization disorderThis type of disorder is marked by periods of feeling detached or disconnected from one’s thoughts and body. A has a distorted perception of the body and feels as if he is observing himself from outside his body or as if one is in a dream.Some people with this disorder do not understand their own movements and actions and they, therefore, feel as if they are going crazy and become anxious and depressed. For numerous individuals, the symptoms are mild and last for a short time while in others the symptoms may be chronic and recur or last for several years, resulting in difficulties with daily functioning (Simeon, & Schmeidler, 2002).