Lesson 3: Neurosis

6 - Amnesia and Dissociation

Certain actions, feelings, and thoughts usually occur as a group of related activities. Dissociation causes a disruption or split in a person’s integrated, consistent concept of themselves from day to day. Dissociation is a behaviour disorder in which the main part of the individual’s personality is in conflict with other activities the person may be tempted to do. For example, Sue perceives herself to be a loving, caring kind of person. Dissociation causes her to frequently become abrupt with her associates, and suddenly she decides to cheat on her steady boyfriend. Stress can cause dissociation. Amnesia or memory loss is a kind of dissociative reaction.

Amnesia means that all or major parts of the memory are “forgotten”. When amnesia occurs, personal memories and personal identity are repressed or forgotten by the individual. By contrast, the person still retains general knowledge, habits, special talents, and overall information about how to function in society. For example, an amnesia patient may not remember their own name, address, or information about their family and friends (personal knowledge). They will likely know how to operate a car, how to eat with a knife and fork, or how to sing or play the piano (general knowledge). Personal memories may be painful for the person so these memories are temporarily forgotten. Becaue general knowledge is emotionally nonthreatening, those memories are retained.

Fugue amnesia (from the Latin word “to flee”) is the most extreme type of amnesia. It describes a situation wherein the person loses his or her memory and runs away or escapes to a strange environment. A young woman in Alberta experienced fugue amnesia. She lost knowledge of her personal memories, hitchhiked to California, and was found wandering and disoriented. She was brought home by family members, but even in a familiar environment, she struggled to remember the details of her life prior to her attack of amnesia.

Memory may be restored after a bout of amnesia by using therapy to treat the repression. Sometimes memory returns after a highly emotional experience. Recovering memory is one of the primary goals when treating a person for amnesia. Another important objective is healing the conflicts that caused the amnesia attack in the first place.

CBS News - Mysterious Amnesia Case

Another interesting phenomenon related to dissociation is sleep disorders. Somnambulism is sleep-walking. Sleep problems are not related to mental illness. They occur due to neurological or physiological disruptions that upset the normal behaviour of the brain during sleep. You may recall from the section on sleep earlier in this course that mention was made of REM, the rapid eye movements present during the deeper stages of sleep. Usually sleep-walking occurs during the non-REM stages of sleep.