Describe two dissociative disorders and discuss the etiology of dissociative identity disorder (DID)

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Dissociative disorders are a class of disorders in which people lose contact with portions of their consciousness or memory, resulting in disruptions in their sense of identity. Dissociative amnesia is a sudden loss of memory for important personal information that is too extensive to be due to normal forgetting. Memory loss may be for a single traumatic event or for an extended time period around the event. People sometimes lose their memory for their entire lives along with their sense of personal identity; they forget their name, family, where they live, etc., but still know how to do math and drive a car. Dissociative identity disorder (formerly known as multiple personality disorder) involves the coexistence in one person of two or more largely complete, and usually very different, personalities.

DID is related to severe emotional trauma that occurred in childhood, although this link is not unique to DID, as a history of child abuse elevates the likelihood of many disorders. Some theorists believe that therapists may play a role in their development of this pattern of behavior by subtly encouraging the development of symptoms.