Dissociative Identity Disorder

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), a common disorder resulting from severe early childhood trauma, is most typically associated with extreme and repeated episodes of physical, sexual, and/or emotional abuse. Dissociation occurs along a continuum from mild to severe. The mildest forms generally fall within the range of normal human experience, while the more severe forms pose a range of problems which debilitate the individual experiencing them. Dissociation can be viewed as a mental strategy or cognitive process that involves the ability to escape stressful or harmful situations by creating another place for the mind to go. This course offers an introduction to dissociative identity disorder which includes an overview of its diagnostic boundaries, aetiology, prevalence, and treatment. The differentiation between borderline personality disorder and dissociative identity disorder is also covered as a consequence of the similarities in aetiology, symptomatology and at times, co-morbidity, of the two disorders.