Memory Fragmentation in Dissociative Identity Disorder
Abstract
This study examined the quality of self-reported memories of traumatic experiences in participants with dissociative identity disorder (DID) and compared them with their memories of non-traumatic, but emotionally significant life experiences. Systematic interview data were gathered from 30 DID patients in The Netherlands. All participants reported a history of severe childhood abuse; 93.3% reported some period of amnesia for the index traumatic event, and 33.3% reported periods of amnesia for significant non-traumatic childhood experiences. All participants who had been amnestic for their trauma reported that their memories were initially retrieved in the form of somatosensory flashbacks. This suggests that, like PTSD patients, DID patients at least initially recall their trauma not as a narrative, but as somatosensory re-experiencing. Surprisingly, however, DID participants also recalled emotionally charged non-traumatic life events with significant somatosensory components, a phenomenon that has not been previously reported. This finding raises important issues regarding basic memory processing abnormalities in DID patients.
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This investigation suggests that although most individuals with DID reported lack of narrative memory, high trait dissociation was not specifically related to fragmented meta-memory and memory disturbance may not be unique to traumatic events in a severe clinical sample.
“This investigation suggests that although the majority of individuals with DID reported a lack of narrative memory, high trait dissociation was not specifically related to fragmented meta-memory and memory disturbance may not be unique to traumatic events, at least in a severe clinical sample.”
From Dissociation and memory fragmentation in post-traumatic stress disorder: An evaluation of the dissociative encoding hypothesis (2012) · cites this paper as van der Hart et al., 2005
The Fragmentary Recall of Memories (p. 10) reports that only 45.6% of the DID participants developed a complete narrative memory of trauma. The Discussion (p. 9) and Conclusion (p. 13) report fragmented recall of emotionally significant non-traumatic events as well. The Dissociation section (p. 5) finds no significant correlation between dissociation scores and the degree of forgetting the traumatic event, but does not establish the claimed lack of a specific relationship with fragmented meta-memory. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredIn van der Hart et al. (2005), trait dissociation assessed by the DES was not significantly correlated with self-reported memory loss.
“However, trait dissociation, assessed by the DES, was not significantly correlated with self-reported memory loss, suggesting that severity of trait dissociation was not strongly associated with perceived memory quality.”
From Dissociation and memory fragmentation in post-traumatic stress disorder: An evaluation of the dissociative encoding hypothesis (2012) · cites this paper as van der Hart et al., 2005
The Dissociation section (p. 5) reports that DES scores were not significantly correlated with the degree of forgetting the target traumatic event. That supports the stated non-correlation, but the paper’s result is narrower than self-reported memory loss or perceived memory quality generally. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredOnly two studies in this review looked specifically at childhood abuse, and both failed to find consistent significant relationships between trait dissociation and memory fragmentation.
“It is interesting to note that only two studies in this review looked specifically at childhood abuse (Peace et al., 2008; van der Hart et al., 2005) and both failed to find consistent significant relationships between trait dissociation and memory fragmentation.”
From Dissociation and memory fragmentation in post-traumatic stress disorder: An evaluation of the dissociative encoding hypothesis (2012) · cites this paper as van der Hart et al., 2005
The Introduction (p. 2) says the study examined traumatic and non-traumatic memories in women with dissociative identity disorder, and the paper reports that all participants had histories of severe childhood abuse (p. 1). The Dissociation results (p. 5) found no significant relationship between dissociation scores and the degree of forgetting a traumatic event, but forgetting is not the same as memory fragmentation; the cited paper does not report the claimed test of trait dissociation against fragmentation. The assertion that there were only two such studies in the citing review cannot be established from this source. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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- Authors
- van der Hart, O., Bolt, H., & van der Kolk, B. A.
- Affiliations
- Utrecht University (NL)
- Venue
- Journal of Trauma & Dissociation
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2005-03-07
- Volume
- 6
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 55-70
- ISSN
- 1529-9732 (ISSN-L)
- 1529-9740
- OpenAlex
- W2140160784
- Cited by
- 54
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 1.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Trauma & Dissociation (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- dissociative identity disorder, memory fragmentation, traumatic memory, childhood abuse, amnesia, post-traumatic stress disorder
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Child, Child Abuse, Child Abuse, Sexual, Child, Preschool, Female, Humans, Interview, Psychological, Memory Disorders, Dissociative Identity Disorder, Reference Values
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