What are the different types of dissociative disorders?
There are four main categories of dissociative disorders as defined in the standard catalogue of psychological diagnoses used by mental health professionals in North America, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). The four dissociative disorders are: Dissociative Amnesia, Dissociative Fugue, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Depersonalization Disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Frey, 2001; Spiegel & Cardeña, 1991). Dissociative Amnesia (Psychogenic Amnesia) is characterized by an inability to recall important personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature, that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. The amnesia must be too extensive to be characterized as typical forgetfulness and cannot be due to an organic disorder or DID. It is the most common of all dissociative disorders, frequently seen in hospital emergency rooms (Maldonado et al., 2002; Steinberg et al., 1993).
