Exam 2  Chapter 7

Ex: person who is scared of flying begins every flight by transporting his mind to a safe/familiar place.
Ex: allows ppl to perform heroic feats in situations that would normally cause fear/dread

1. Depersonalization disorder
2. Dissociative amnesia
3. Dissociative fugue
4. Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)

-distressed/impaired by persistent feelings of detachment/unreality
-feel disconnected from own mental processes "feel like robots", or "living in a movie"
-people feel emotionally detached/numbed

-Persistent/recurrent experiences of feeling detached from one's body or mind (watching one's self from outside)
-During period, person is not psychotic, he/she continues to know what is real and what's not.
-Experience causes distress in functioning

-forget basic info about their identity/recent past, usually following trauma

1. Localized
2. Selective
3. Generalized
4. Continuous
5. Systematized

Loss of memory for all of the events that occurred w/in a specific period of time.
Ex: having amnesia for all events that happened on same day she witnessed a gruesome car accident

Loss of memory for some, but not all, of the events from a specific period of time.
Ex: someone who has forgotten many episodes from a recent combat experience

Refers to experience of forgetting everything about one's personal identity - no knowledge of name, background, family history
-Nonpersonal aspects of memory remain intact like current events

Refers to amnesia that begins at a specific time and continues through to the present
Ex: Man who can't remember anything that has occurred since learning of the accidental death of his spouse a week ago.

Refers to loss of memory for a certain category of information
Ex: memories related to a particular person

-1 or more episodes of the inability to recall important personal info, usually about trauma or stress
-forgotten info is too extensive to be accounted for by ordinary forgetting
-forgetting causes distress/impairment in functioning

-Blackouts or "time loss"
-Reports of disremembered behavior
-Appearance of unexplained possessions
-Perplexing changes in relationships
-Fragmentary recall of life history
-Brief, trance-like amnesia episodes ("microamnesias")

Sudden and unexpected travel away from home accompanied by forgetting of one's past and personal identity
-only lasts a few days or hours
-more common in ppl w/ past incidents of amnesia
-more likely to occur in depressed people

-Sudden, unexpected travel away from home/work w/ inability to recall past
-Confusion a/b personal identity or assumption of complete/partial new identity
-Symptoms cause distress/impairment in functioning

-most severe, fascinating, controversial
-maintains original identity, but has other identities that replace original personality
-often confused w/ schizophrenia
-typical; 2-4 personalities
-more than 25 in rare cases
-diametrically opposed pairs are common -host/persecutory/protector
-host/protector can describe other personalities
-no memory of events during another personality was dominant

-retains legal name and identity
-help function by job, responsibilities, relationships

-aggressive/hostile impulses
-seek to undermine more adaptive personalities

-work to avoid dangerous situations
-aggressive towards threats

-2 or more distinct identities w/in one person
-at least 2 of identities recurrently take control of persons behavior
-memory loss of that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness

argue that DID is a real disorder that can result from overwhelming childhood experiences such as severe abuse
-dissociative response as a survival strategy that helped child cope w/ overwhelming trauma
-develop alternative identities as a way of escaping severe physical/sexual abuse

DID is an unfortunate contemporary fad that is fueld by naive or overzealous therapists and the media
-believe DID is iatrogenic

-A disorder unintentionally caused by a treatment

-result from defense mechanism to cope w/ painful and overwhelming feelings

1. Repression
2. Splitting
3. Identification

dissociation = extreme form of repression
-pushing traumatic event out of consciousness and it comes out in form of identities

"All good or All bad"
Ex: abused child, a "bad" personality who seen as deserving of the abuse may be split off from "good" personality who is innocent

-taking on traits of someone else in form of a defense mechanism
Ex: abused children who want to forget what is happening to them may identify with, and adopt personalities
-abuse isn't good for kids self-esteem, they may take on traits that are admired by others

-splitting of consciousness if followed by feelings of relief
-by dissociating, emotional pain is avoided and dissociating behavior is reinforced

-provide supportive environment for helping clients develop adaptive responses to traumatic events

-self-hypnosis
-people who dissociate are putting themselves in a hypnotic, trance state to remove themselves from pain
-divisions of consciousness
-memory and attentional disruptions due to trauma

Focuses on changing cognitive schemas that are based on traumatic childhood experiences

amygdala registers emotional significance of experiences and works w/ hippocampus to form/store memories for emotional events
-reduced hippocampus is associated w/ trauma exposure - trauma may disrupt the evaluation/recollection of experiences

The use of medication to promote therapeutic remembering; used during WWII to help soldiers remember forgotten traumatic incidents.