Individuals face different mental health challenges which undermine their normal function. Nevida, Rathus and Greene (2013) cited dissociative amnesia as a condition whereby it becomes difficult for one to recall important personal information. The information mainly involves stressful or traumatic experiences in a manner that cannot be accounted for through simple forgetfulness. Providing further support, Radulovic, Lee and Ortony (2018) explained that dissociation is unconscious and entails disruption of one’s subjective integration of one or more elements of psychological functioning. Therefore, the authors accept and expand Nevid, Rathus and Greene’s (2013) description of dissociative amnesia stating that individuals’ psychological functioning such as identity, memory, perception as well as motor control, are largely affected.
Nevid, Rathus and Greene (2013) also stated that there are various types of dissociative amnesia such as localized, selective, generalized, continues and systemized forms of amnesia. He describes local amnesia, for instance, as a situation whereby an individual forgets events that have occurred during a particular time period. For instance, one may not recall events that occurred a few hours or even a day after a traumatic incident. Singh, Dogra, Kumar and Gupta (2015) explained that localized amnesia involves failure to remember information in a circumscribed period of time. Thus, there is a consensus that localized amnesia is mainly about limited forgetfulness.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
One key observation that Nevid, Rathus, and Greene (2013) noted that it is increasingly difficult for clinicians to determine the difference between individuals with dissociative amnesia and those claiming to have the same condition to escape responsibility. Corroborating the information given, Granacher (2014) stated that there is no clear diagnosis of the condition in question. The implication is that with no clear diagnostic criteria, it becomes difficult for clinicians to distinguish individuals with dissociative amnesia from those who are not suffering from the mental health condition.
References
Granacher, R. (2014). Commentary: Dissociative amnesia and the future of forensic psychiatric assessment. The Journal of the American Academic of Psychiatry and the Law , 42(2), 214-217.
Nevid, J., Rathus, S. & Greene, B. (2013). Abnormal psychology: In a changing world . Pearson.
Radulovic, J., Lee, R., & Ortony, A. (2018). State-Dependent Memory: Neurobiological Advances and Prospects for Translation to Dissociative Amnesia. Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience , 12 , 259. doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00259
Singh, P., Dogra, R., Kumar, K., & Gupta, R. (2015). Dissociative amnesia: A case with management challenges. Open Journal of Psychiatry & Allied Sciences,6 (2), 146. doi:10.5958/2394-2061.2015.00014.2
