Dissociative Disorders, Essay Example

Given the similarities between the four major types of dissociative disorder, it is not difficult to identify common traits; simply, each reflects an inability in the individual to retain a single sense of self. That said, it seems that dissociative fugue and depersonalization disorder more echo each other’s conditions. More exactly, it appears that the depersonalization may be a platform for the rarer fugue state. In the former, the self is “misplaced,” and the individual cannot properly maintain their own behaviors because they have no fixed identity at this point. The fugue is a kind of exploitation of this vulnerability, or at least may be perceived as such, because the person so unattached to the self then translates the dysfunction into physical terms (Nami.org , 2011). They actually wander off, unknown as themselves to themselves, which is inherently a dangerous consequence of the disorder. It is all the more interesting that the fugue state is highly unusual, while depersonalization is easily related to by many people.

To speculate as to how I myself would cope with a memory or identity loss is inherently difficult, at best. Deprived of either a sense of personal being or recall, I cannot conceive of what course that different person would take, simply because we cannot foresee the reactions of an unknown being. At the same time, I have an innate feeling that a part of me would actually welcome the experience, provided my basic needs were not neglected. Such a state of being is unimaginable for most of us, and I feel it must be, on some level, immensely liberating. Of course, I am aware that I am able to engage in this speculation precisely because I am not undergoing what must be the extreme trauma of possessing no identity or personal history. That severity, in fact, is what I most take from the National Alliance of Mental Illness website. Beyond descriptions of disorders, the site conveys the gravity of each of these conditions, which I believe many people view incorrectly. This is understandable as, again, it is literally inconceivable to imagine the self when the self is no longer present, so there is a tendency to modify the substance of these disorders, just as I have tempered it in my own speculation. As the site makes clear, however, these are not necessarily transitional stages of minor dysfunction, but seriously threatening forms of actual illness.

References

Nami.org. Dissociative Disorders. (2011). Retrieved 6 July, 2012, from http://www.nami.org/Content/ContentGroups/Helpline1/Dissociative_Disorders.htm