PSY 1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Hillside Strangler, Dissociative Disorder, Dissociative Identity Disorder

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1102
• Professor: victor emerson

Document Summary

As noted in the textbook, dissociative disorders are bewildering. A dissociative disorder is a disorder of consciousness. In a dissociative disorder, a person is dissociated by a stressful situation from his or her normal life, perhaps by a fugue state: Many people can easily experience this by standing up quickly from a squatting position. This produces a feeling of lightheadedness, and the person may feel as if he or she is watching him- or herself from a distance. (don"t try this at home unless you have someone to catch you if you faint. ) However, this transient feeling does not involve a loss of a large chunk of memory or of one"s own identity. Dissociative identity disorder (did) is characterised by a massive dissociation of self from ordinary consciousness. Formerly called multiple personality disorder or split personality, did is associated with a person exhibiting two or more distinct and alternating personalities who typically are not aware of each other"s existence.