15.9 Dissociative Disorders

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Describe the essential nature of dissociative disorders
  • Identify and differentiate the symptoms of dissociative amnesia, depersonalization/ derealization disorder, and dissociative identity disorder
  • Discuss the potential role of both social and psychological factors in dissociative identity disorder

Dissociative disorders are characterized by an individual becoming split off, or dissociated, from their core sense of self. Memory and identity become disturbed; these disturbances have a psychological rather than physical cause. Dissociative disorders listed in the DSM-5 include dissociative amnesia, depersonalization/derealization disorder, and dissociative identity disorder.

The content of this course has been taken from the free Psychology textbook by Openstax