ABSTRACT
From Jekyll and Hyde like shifts of feelings and behaviors to feelings of unreality, like “all the world’s a stage” for actors seemingly playing a part, to amnesia for events that one should, by all rights remember, the symptoms of dissociative disorders have proven to be as fascinating as they are perplexing and controversial. Janet (1973) was perhaps the first to claim, in 1889, that dissociation (or “desagregation” as he termed it) originated in a defensive response to traumatic events and to appreciate the importance of studying dissociation in order to comprehend the full range of everyday and anomalous experiences (Cardeña, Lynn, & Krippner, 2014). Janet’s contention that dissociation represents a coping strategy in response to highly aversive events continues to provoke vigorous debate, just as the notion of multiple personality disorder (now termed dissociative identity disorder) sparked Freud’s skepticism in Janet’s time. In this chapter, we examine the three major dissociative disorders-dissociation/derealization disorder, dissociative amnesia, and dissociative identity disorder, in turn. More specifically, we describe 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.
