What is dissociative amnesia?
Dissociative amnesia, formerly called psychogenic amnesia, is one of a group of conditions called dissociative disorders. Dissociative disorders are mental illnesses that involve disruptions or breakdowns of memory, consciousness or awareness, identity and/or perceptionmental functions that normally operate smoothly. When one or more of these functions is disrupted, symptoms can result. These symptoms can interfere with a persons general functioning, including social and work activities, and relationships.
Dissociative amnesia occurs when a person blocks out certain information, usually associated with a stressful or traumatic event, leaving him or her unable to remember important personal information. With this disorder, the degree of memory loss goes beyond normal forgetfulness and includes gaps in memory for long periods of time or of memories involving the traumatic event.
Dissociative amnesia is not the same as simple amnesia, which involves a loss of information from the memory, usually as the result of disease or injury to the brain. With dissociative amnesia, the memories still exist but are deeply buried within the persons mind and cannot be recalled. However, the memories might resurface on their own or after being triggered by something in the persons surroundings.