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Controversy Regarding Dissociative Disorders
Holly Bowling
Walden University
NRNP 6665: PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan I
Dr. Pamela Mokoko
May 3, 2021
This study source was downloaded by 100000840275362 from CourseHero.com on 06-19-2022 17:41:41 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/94345079/WK9AssgnbowlinghNRNP6665docx/
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Controversy Regarding Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative disorders (DD) are mental health disorders, such as dissociative identity
disorder (DID), dissociative amnesia, or depolarization/derealization disorder that involve the
disruption of one or more mental functions, such as memory, identity, perception, consciousness,
or motor behavior (Sadock, Sadock, & Ruiz, 2015). DD comes with many controversies, myths,
and ethical issues that the advanced practitioner must take into account when treating individuals
with such disorders. The following paper will discuss specific controversies and professional
beliefs associated with DD, as well as strategies for maintaining therapeutic alliance and legal
and ethical considerations when treating clients with DD.
Controversy Surrounding Dissociative Disorders
There is much evidence to support the relationship between dissociation disorders (DD)
and psychological trauma, especially cumulative and/or early life trauma. Some might endorse
that dissociation produces fantasies of trauma and that DD is artefactual conditions produced by
iatrogenesis and/or socio-cultural factors (Loewenstein, 2018). Other controversies are stemmed
from the anxiety evoked by unsettling clinical presentation seen with DD, which may be similar
to some clinicians’ emotional reactions to psychiatric emergency patients. There is also a dispute
over the meaning of observed symptoms of DD, and whether they are a unique and subtle set of
core symptoms and behaviors that some clinicians do not see when it is before their eyes, or as a
willful malingering cause of symptoms created by the other clinicians who think something is
there that is not (Loewenstein, 2018). A final controversy is a fear that criminals will “get off”
without being punished by a gullible justice system, which attributes behavior to another
personality and does not hold the perpetrator responsible (Loewenstein, 2018).
Professional Beliefs About Dissociative Disorders
This study source was downloaded by 100000840275362 from CourseHero.com on 06-19-2022 17:41:41 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/94345079/WK9AssgnbowlinghNRNP6665docx/
Controversy Regarding Dissociative Disorders
Holly Bowling
Walden University
NRNP 6665: PMHNP Care Across the Lifespan I
Dr. Pamela Mokoko
May 3, 2021
This study source was downloaded by 100000840275362 from CourseHero.com on 06-19-2022 17:41:41 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/94345079/WK9AssgnbowlinghNRNP6665docx/
, 2
Controversy Regarding Dissociative Disorders
Dissociative disorders (DD) are mental health disorders, such as dissociative identity
disorder (DID), dissociative amnesia, or depolarization/derealization disorder that involve the
disruption of one or more mental functions, such as memory, identity, perception, consciousness,
or motor behavior (Sadock, Sadock, & Ruiz, 2015). DD comes with many controversies, myths,
and ethical issues that the advanced practitioner must take into account when treating individuals
with such disorders. The following paper will discuss specific controversies and professional
beliefs associated with DD, as well as strategies for maintaining therapeutic alliance and legal
and ethical considerations when treating clients with DD.
Controversy Surrounding Dissociative Disorders
There is much evidence to support the relationship between dissociation disorders (DD)
and psychological trauma, especially cumulative and/or early life trauma. Some might endorse
that dissociation produces fantasies of trauma and that DD is artefactual conditions produced by
iatrogenesis and/or socio-cultural factors (Loewenstein, 2018). Other controversies are stemmed
from the anxiety evoked by unsettling clinical presentation seen with DD, which may be similar
to some clinicians’ emotional reactions to psychiatric emergency patients. There is also a dispute
over the meaning of observed symptoms of DD, and whether they are a unique and subtle set of
core symptoms and behaviors that some clinicians do not see when it is before their eyes, or as a
willful malingering cause of symptoms created by the other clinicians who think something is
there that is not (Loewenstein, 2018). A final controversy is a fear that criminals will “get off”
without being punished by a gullible justice system, which attributes behavior to another
personality and does not hold the perpetrator responsible (Loewenstein, 2018).
Professional Beliefs About Dissociative Disorders
This study source was downloaded by 100000840275362 from CourseHero.com on 06-19-2022 17:41:41 GMT -05:00
https://www.coursehero.com/file/94345079/WK9AssgnbowlinghNRNP6665docx/
