| abreaction | An intense reexperiencing of an event in memory retrieval.
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| alters | In dissociative identity disorder patients, the secondary or multiple identities the person adopts.
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| amnesia | The partial or total forgetting of past experiences. It can be associated with organic brain syndromes or with psychological stress.
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| body dysmorphic disorder | A preoccupation with an imagined or a grossly exaggerated defect in one's appearance.
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| coconscious | In dissociative identity disorder, the term used to refer to a subordinate personality that is fully aware of the dominant personality's thoughts and actions.
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| conversion disorder | The loss or impairment of some motor or sensory function for which there is no organic cause; formerly known as "hysteria" or "hysterical neurosis."
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| depersonalization | A sense of strangeness or unreality in oneself.
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| depersonalization disorder | A disruption of personal identity that is characterized by a sense of strangeness or unreality in oneself, e.g., feeling that one is viewing oneself from the outside or is functioning like a robot.
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| derealization | A feeling of strangeness about the world. Other people, and the self, seem robotic, dead, or somehow unreal.
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| dissociative amnesia | Memory loss without any apparent physiological cause, as a response to psychological stress. Dissociative amnesia tends to be anterograde, blotting out a period of time after the precipitating stress.
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| dissociative disorders | Disorders resulting from the splitting off of some psychological function—such as identity or memory—from the rest of the conscious mind.
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| dissociative fugue | A condition related to amnesia in which a person not only forgets most or all of his or her past but also takes a sudden, unexpected trip away from home.
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| dissociative identity disorder (DID) | A condition in which the personality breaks apart into two or more distinct personalities, each well integrated and well developed, which then take turns controlling the person's behavior. Also known as multiple personality.
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| episodic memory | Memory of personal experience.
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| explicit memories | Memories we are aware of, which may disappear in amnesia. Cf.implicit memories.
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| host | In dissociative identity disorder patients, the personality corresponding to who the person was before the onset of the disorder.
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| hypochondriasis | A disorder in which a person converts anxiety into a chronic fear of disease. The fear is maintained by the constant misinterpretation of physical signs and sensations as abnormal.
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| hysteria | A psychogenic disorder that mimics a biogenic disorder.
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| iatrogenic | A type of symptom brought about as a consequence of therapy or treatment.
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| implicit memories | Memories that a person with amnesia cannot call into conscious awareness but that still affect his or her behavior. Cf.explicit memories.
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| la belle indifférence | A response often seen in conversion disorder in which the person does not seem at all disturbed by his or her disability.
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| malingering | The conscious faking of disease symptoms in order to avoid responsibility.
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| pain disorder | A syndrome characterized by chronic pain that is more severe or persistent than can be explained by medical causes.
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| primary gain | In conversion disorder, the relief from anxiety that is experienced by the person as a result of the conversion symptom, which blocks the person's awareness of internal conflict.
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| procedural memory | Memory for skills.
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| secondary gain | In conversion disorder, the "benefit," of being excused from responsibilities and of attracting sympathy and attention, which accrue to the person as a result of the conversion symptom.
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| semantic memory | General knowledge.
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| somatization disorder | A syndrome characterized by numerous and recurrent physical complaints, persisting for several years, for which no medical basis can be found.
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| somatoform disorders | Conditions in which psychological conflicts take on a somatic or physical form. These disorders include hypochondriasis, somatization disorder, and conversion disorder.
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| source-monitoring deficit theory | Theory that proposes that patients with dissociative identity disorder do not retrieve a sufficient number or a proper configuration of features that would allow them to identify past experiences as memories.
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| state-dependent memory | Phenomenon where knowledge obtained in a certain state (e.g., under the influence of drugs) may not be retained when the person is no longer in that state.
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