Dissociation and Faking Myths

Careful assessment can consider imitation and false positives without treating every dissociative person as a liar. ^{1 2 3}

Main ideas

• False positives are possible in any diagnosis, which is why differential assessment matters.
• Online misinformation can shape how people describe symptoms, but that does not erase real dissociation.
• A good clinician looks for longitudinal patterns, impairment, consistency, context, and alternative explanations.

Questions for reflection

• What evidence exists over time?
• What else could explain the symptoms?
• Is skepticism being used carefully or as blanket dismissal?

Clinical note

Assessment should be rigorous and humane. Those are not opposites.

Footnotes

1. Pietkiewicz, I. J., Banbura-Nowak, A., Tomalski, R., & Boon, S. (2021). Revisiting false-positive and imitated dissociative identity disorder. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Differential diagnosis article. Open access diagnostic caution article. ↩

2. Reinders, A. A. T. S., et al. (2012). Fact or factitious? A psychobiological study of authentic and simulated dissociative identity states. PLOS ONE, 7(6), e39279. Psychobiological comparison study. Open access PLOS ONE article. ↩

3. Brand, B. L., Sar, V., Stavropoulos, P., Kruger, C., Korzekwa, M., Martinez-Taboas, A., & Middleton, W. (2016). Separating fact from fiction: An empirical examination of six myths about dissociative identity disorder. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 24(4), 257-270. Abstract and overview of six myths. Text-fragment link to the article's summary claim. ↩