Dissociation and Self-Awareness Myths

People can have some awareness of dissociation and still have DID. Awareness may change across parts and over time. ^{1 2 3}

Main ideas

• Awareness is often partial: someone may know about the system but not have access to all memories or motives.
• Increased awareness can be a sign of stabilization, not evidence of faking.
• Denial and doubt are common in complex dissociation.

Questions for reflection

• Who is aware of what?
• Does awareness reduce or increase safety?
• What information is missing during specific states?

Clinical note

Knowing some of what is happening does not mean someone controls all of it.

Footnotes

1. 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. ↩

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. 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. ↩