In this chapter I restrict myself to exploring the nature of the amnesia which is reported between personality states in most people who are diagnosed with DID. Note that this is not an explicit diagnostic criterion, although such amnesia features strongly in the public view of DID, particularly in the form of the fugue-like conditions depicted in lms of the condition, such as The Three Faces of Eve (1957). Typically, when one personality state, or alter, takes over from another, they have no idea what happened just before. They report having lost time, and often will have no idea where they are or how they got there. However, this is not a universal feature of DID. It happens that with certain individuals with DID, one personality state can retrieve what happened when another was in control. In other cases we have what is described as co-consciousness where one personality state can apparently monitor what is happening when another personality state is in control and, in certain circumstances, can take over the conversation.
alter-personalities alters amnesia amnesiac consciousness diagnosing diagnosis diagnostic-criteria did dissociation dissociative-amnesia dissociative-disorder dissociative-identity-disorder dsm dsm5 exception-to-the-rule forgetfulness fugue fugue-state memory memory-loss mental-illness misdiagnosis misunderstanding mpd multiple-personalities multiple-personality-disorder multiplicity personality-switch personality-system prejudice states-of-consciousness stereotypes stigma switching

About This Quote

Related Quotes

“Switches among identities occur in response to changes in emotional state or to environmental demands, resulting in another identity emerging to assume control. Because different identities have di...”
— James A. Chu
alter-personalities dissociation dissociative dissociative-identities

“Of course, I should have known the kids would pop out in the atmosphere of Roberta's office. That's what they do when Alice is under stress. They see a gap in the space-time continuum and slip thro...”
— Alice Jamieson, Today I'm Alice: Nine Personalities, One Tortured Mind
alter-personalities alters dissociation dissociative

“The case of a patient with dissociative identity disorder follows:Cindy, a 24-year-old woman, was transferred to the psychiatry service to facilitate community placement. Over the years, she had re...”
— Donald W. Black, Introductory Textbook of Psychiatry
alter-personalities bipolar-disorder borderline-personality-disorder compulsive-liar

“I believe the perception of what people think about DID is I might be crazy, unstable, and low functioning. After my diagnosis, I took a risk by sharing my story with a few friends. It was quite up...”
— Esmay T. Parker, A Shimmer of Hope
alters awareness breakthrough dissociative

“Dissociation, in a general sense, refers to a rigid separation of parts of experiences, including somatic experiences, consciousness, affects, perception, identity, and memory. When there is a stru...”
— Elizabeth F. Howell, The Dissociative Mind
alters child-abuse childhood depression

“The vitamin, mineral, metal and oil content of the human body drastically alters its reactivity to radiation exposures.”
— Steven Magee
alters body content drastically

“Without realizing that the past is constantly determining their present actions, they avoid learning anything about their history. They continue to live in their repressed childhood situation, igno...”
— Alice Miller
amnesia child-sex-abuse childhood chile-abuse

“Right now Im having amnesia and dj vu at the same time. I think Ive forgotten this before.”
— Steven Wright
amnesia humor memory

“Not knowing who you are is a certain kind of hell.”
— Kelly Thompson, The Girl Who Would Be King
amnesia bonnie hell hero