Amnesia

True amnesia exists only in dissociative identity disorder. Dissociative amnesia is found in all the Dissociative Disorders. Amnesia is one of those words like "dissociation" that gets thrown around and used to mean all sorts of things, but this page will identify correct terminology. Anyone can forget where they put their car keys, especially if they are not paying attention or put them in a new place, and that is perfectly normal. Individuals needs to focus their conscious awareness on tasks or they tend to do them "mindlessly." The mind must be engaged in an action if it is to easily remember a task. Highway hypnosis is an example of something humans do mindlessly. It's simply doing a repetitive task without paying attention to it. Psychological amnesia, on the other hand is an illness, and there are two types: "true amnesia," and "dissociative amnesia," and both are due to an overwhelming of trauma that could not be processed, resulting in structural dissociation of the personality. If you have this type of amnesia you are ill.

The differences in the ways "forgetfulness" is experienced by individuals within the range of Trauma Stressor-Related and Dissociative Disorders is important to understanding the disorders themselves. "dissociative amnesia" is not "true amnesia." It is a dissociative symptom which is seen in the Dissociative Disorders including other specified dissociative disorder and dissociative identity disorder, as well as in a complex version of posttraumatic stress disorder: complex posttraumatic stress disorder. Whether or not it exists in individuals with borderline personality disorder who have suffered structural dissociation is yet to be known.

In borderline personality disorder (not all individuals with borderline personality disorder have suffered structural dissociation) the same symptoms can occur, but there is also a focus on relationship problems due to dissociative amnesia. This means the person with borderline personality disorder might "forget" important aspects of their current relationships and those forgotten aspects are replaced with ideas from childhood. The result is usually an overly emotional child-like state reacting from a bad experienced early in life, but it is not necessarily dissociative amnesia.

In other specified dissociative disorder, all the symptoms that have been listed in this paragraph apply, (avoidance, flashbacks, anxiety, severe startle response, headaches, forgetfulness, and angry outbursts, exchange of childhood memory and reactions with current day events) plus there is switching of the one distinct state with the less than distinct states which can result in dissociative amnesia for the distinct state, and sometimes even for the less than distinct states.

Dissociative identity disorder is completely different from all the other disorders mentioned above. Two distinct states exist in this disorder, and what is experienced when two distinct states switch is "true amnesia." This is due, as least in part, to the incredible phobia that exists between these states. Dissociative identity disorder is far more complicated than the other disorders listed here, and in addition to "true amnesia," the individual with dissociative identity disorder will also experience dissociative amnesia in all the ways that were described in the paragraph above (avoidance, flashbacks, anxiety, severe startle response, headaches, forgetfulness, and angry outbursts, exchange of childhood memory and reactions with current day events).

This also holds true for the other disorders that exist under the structural dissociation umbrella: complex version of posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder if the individual was overwhelmed with unprocessed trauma events resulting in structural dissociation, other specified dissociative disorder and dissociative identity disorder. Again, true amnesia can only occur between two distinct states and so is only seen in dissociative identity disorder. The ability to discern true amnesia from dissociative amnesia lies in the ability to tell a distinct state from a less than distinct state. See the following for more information: dissociative identity disorder, other specified dissociative disorder and structural dissociation.

Dissociative Fugue
A dissociative fugue, also known as psychogenic fugue or fugue state involves both travel and either loss of a identity (e.g., not knowing your name or where you live) or development of a new identity. There is always amnesia for the recent past, for example not knowing how or why the travel took place, the amnesia is generalized rather than selective amnesia. The DSM-5 states that a fugue can be noted within a dissociative amnesia diagnosis:

"Dissociative Fugue is no longer in a separate category, and is now subsumed under the dissociative amnesia category. If an individual experienced fugue, it is noted here."

Diagnostic manuals
'''Diagnostic manuals like the DSM and ICD are not meant to be used to understand any mental disorder. Their intent is to give the minimum criteria needed to diagnose a disorder. The criteria listed here is paraphrased, as proper etiquette demands.'''