Chapter 1. Dissociative Disorder in the Modern Era (5)

One of the good examples of this bulldozing effect is that of Asperser’s syndrome as I mentioned above. Its effect on the current psychiatry is really remarkable, to the point of being unsettling. People that mental health professionals have never really paid attention, such as reclusive scientists, eccentric artists, young computer nerds, and so called “Cluster C” personality disordered people, such as schizoid and schizotypal individuals, now became the focus of attention and are considered having at least a feature of developmental disorder.

How about dissociative disorder? I consider that it has both “auxiliary line” effects as well as “bulldozing” effect. It is likely that dissociative disorders could be the next BPD or Asperser’s syndrome in the modern psychiatry. However, I am under the impression that the time of breakthrough is yet to come.

Where have dissociative patients been hidden?


In the past psychiatry, dissociative patients were often considered to be protean, amorphous and unclassifiable. They tended to be treated as having conditions related to other psychiatric illnesses. Dissociative alteration of consciousness, dissociative amnesia, hallucination and many other physical symptoms were considered as symptoms of epilepsy, schizophrenia or unknown physical illness.