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Somatic Symptom Disorders
and
Dissociative Disorders
Somatic Symptom Disorders
• Used to be called Somatoform
• Somatic = body
• Somatic symptoms = symptoms involving the
body
• Somatic symptom disorders = disorders that
take the form of bodily illnesses and symptoms
but are due to psychological rather than medical
conditions
Somatic Symptom Disorders
Conversion Disorder
Anxiety is converted into a physical symptom
Neurological problems
Gastrointestinal problems
Pain or numbness
Ulcers
Headaches
Diarrhea
Paralysis
Blindness
Sexual problems
IBS
Conversion Disorder
Somatic Symptom Disorders
Illness Anxiety Disorder
(hypochondriasis)
Normal sensations interpreted as a dreaded disease
Headache = Brain tumor
Cough = Lung cancer
No amount of reassurance convinces the patient
Dissociative Disorders
• Dissociative disorders - disorders in which there
is a break in conscious awareness, memory, the
sense of identity, or some combination.
• Some dissociation is not that rare:
– Bilingual
– Playing a guitar while talking to someone
– Driving somewhere and not remembering the drive
itself because of thinking about something else.
Dissociative Disorders
• Dissociative amnesia - loss of memory for
personal information, either partial or complete.
• Dissociative fugue - traveling away from familiar
surroundings with amnesia for the trip and
possible amnesia for personal information.
Dissociative Disorders
• Dissociative identity disorder (DID)
(Multiple Personality Disorder) disorder occurring
when a person seems to have two or more distinct
personalities within one body.
Dissociative Disorders
Chris Costner Sizemore
Dissociative Identity Disorder
• Genuine disorder or not?
• DID rates
• Rates increased in 1980’s North America, but
not elsewhere
• Therapist’s creation
• Like “role-playing”
Development of Dissociative Disorders
• Psychoanalytic explanations point to repression of
memories, seeing dissociation as a defense
mechanism against anxiety.
• Cognitive and behavioral explanations see
dissociative disorders as a kind of avoidance
learning.
Development of Dissociative Disorders
• Biological explanations point to lower than normal
activity levels in the areas responsible for body
awareness in people with dissociative disorders.
Assignment
• Psychology-2: 32.5 – 32.7 Questions
Pages 426 - 433
• AP Psychology: 68 – 69a Questions