Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie was a famous British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time. Agatha was diagnosed with dissociative fugue after her eleven day disappearance. She had disappeared after her husband had revealed that he was in love with another woman. Later she was identified as a guest at a hotel where she had registered as ‘Mrs. Teresa Neele’. Although this might seem normal so far, when she was questioned she had no account of what had occurred the past eleven days.

Four Dissociative DisordersDepersonalization Disorder : periods of detachment from self or surrounding which may be experienced as "unreal" (lacking in control of or "outside of" self) while retaining awareness that this is only a feeling and not a reality.

 Dissociative Amnesia :(formerly Psychogenic Amnesia): noticeable impairment of recall resulting from emotional trauma

 Dissociative Fugue : (formerly Psychogenic Fugue): physical desertion of familiar surroundings and experience of impaired recall of the past. This may lead to confusion about actual identity and the assumption of a new identity.

Dissociative Identity Disorder : (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder): the alternation of two or more distinct personality states with impaired recall, among personality states, of important information.

Development of Disorder

• Dissociative disorders are defined as conditions that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception. People with dissociative disorders use dissociation, a defense mechanism, pathologically and involuntarily. Dissociative disorders are thought to primarily be caused by psychological trauma.

• The disorders most often form in children subjected to chronic physical, sexual or emotional abuse or, less frequently, a home environment that is frightening or highly unpredictable.

Treatments Depersonalization has no treatments other than

psychotherapy. Dissociative amnesia may be treated with

psychoanalysis or medication. The use of certain stimuli may recover lost memory.

Fugue can be treated with psychoanalysis but it is difficult to diagnose and can cure itself without warning.

Dissociative identity disorder is treated in many ways including psychoanalysis, hypnosis, and medication

Bonus Facts

46% of psychiatric patients have a dissociative disorder

Shakespeare's character King Lear is said to have dissociative amnesia.

Before the 19th century, people with dissociative identity disorder were thought to be possessed.

Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depersonalization_disorder http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_amnesia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_fugue http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissociative_identity_disorder http://www.psyweb.com/mdisord/jsp/dissd.jsp