What is This "Dissociative Amnesia?"
One might ask, “What the heck is dissociative amnesia anyway?” Well, Dissociative Amnesia is one of many dissociative disorders. In order to explain it simply it can be broken down into its two parts:
Dissociation as defined by a research article on dissociative disorders published in 2011 as “a disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal, subjective integration of one or more aspects of psychological functioning, including-but not limited to-memory, identity, consciousness, perception, and motor control.” So basically aspects of psychological functioning, like the examples mentioned above, that should be linked are not. Most dissociative disorders are thought to be related to significant traumatic events or experiences.
Amnesia as defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary “loss of memory due usually to brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression, or illness.” Someone who suffers from amnesia because of these factors suffers from whats called "organic amnesia," basically the explanation for their memory loss has a physical cause and therefore a straight forward explanation.
So if you put the two definitions together, dissociative amnesia is loss of memory not associated with physical injury/trauma. The disorder is much more rare than physiological amnesia. There are two types of Dissociative Amnesia. Generalized, is when a person can not recall life-long memories, or memories of the recent past (six months to a year). Generalized affects retrieval of long-term memory. Localized or selective Dissociative Amnesia is when a person cannot recall traumatic events. Often, fugue states occur along side this disorder, in which the memory loss is centered around a sudden trip that the person takes in which the awareness of their identity is lost. Fugue states can affect both short and long term memory retrieval. When the person recovers from this fugue state they have no recollection of why or how they got there. During these states of memory loss, the person may take on a different personality, but not always.
Dissociative Amnesia is linked to overwhelming stress, often sparked by traumatic events and are often coupled with depression and anxiety. Dissociative disorders may have some genetic predisposition, so it is not uncommon that people with these disorders have relatives with similar disorders.
Dissociation as defined by a research article on dissociative disorders published in 2011 as “a disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal, subjective integration of one or more aspects of psychological functioning, including-but not limited to-memory, identity, consciousness, perception, and motor control.” So basically aspects of psychological functioning, like the examples mentioned above, that should be linked are not. Most dissociative disorders are thought to be related to significant traumatic events or experiences.
Amnesia as defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary “loss of memory due usually to brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression, or illness.” Someone who suffers from amnesia because of these factors suffers from whats called "organic amnesia," basically the explanation for their memory loss has a physical cause and therefore a straight forward explanation.
So if you put the two definitions together, dissociative amnesia is loss of memory not associated with physical injury/trauma. The disorder is much more rare than physiological amnesia. There are two types of Dissociative Amnesia. Generalized, is when a person can not recall life-long memories, or memories of the recent past (six months to a year). Generalized affects retrieval of long-term memory. Localized or selective Dissociative Amnesia is when a person cannot recall traumatic events. Often, fugue states occur along side this disorder, in which the memory loss is centered around a sudden trip that the person takes in which the awareness of their identity is lost. Fugue states can affect both short and long term memory retrieval. When the person recovers from this fugue state they have no recollection of why or how they got there. During these states of memory loss, the person may take on a different personality, but not always.
Dissociative Amnesia is linked to overwhelming stress, often sparked by traumatic events and are often coupled with depression and anxiety. Dissociative disorders may have some genetic predisposition, so it is not uncommon that people with these disorders have relatives with similar disorders.