Dissociative Disorders

This chapter examines the three major dissociative disorders - dissociation/derealization disorder, dissociative amnesia, and dissociative identity disorder, in turn. It describes their symptoms, prevalence, and assessment, as well as current controversies regarding the genesis of dissociation and competing theories of their nature and origin and efforts to treat their vexing symptoms. Studies of the prevalence of people in non-clinical populations who report clinically significant symptoms of dissociation using well-validated measures of dissociation or structured interviews provide variable estimates of often non-trivial rates of dissociation. Unfortunately, no genetic studies of patients diagnosed with dissociative disorders have been conducted. Researchers have at their disposal a number of assessment instruments to evaluate trait and state dissociation based on self-report and interview modalities. The chapter describes the two major accounts of dissociation that vie for empirical attention and support: the posttraumatic model and the sociocognitive model, the latter called by some the fantasy model.