The “Gale Encyclopedia of Mental Disorders” is a comprehensive two-volume set providing detailed information on mental disorders and conditions, in an easy-to-use format. It includes entries for all 150 disorders classified in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” and also features entries for prescription, alternative and over-the-counter drugs, as well as the various therapies used to treat mental disorders.

Author: Rebecca J., Ph.D. Frey
Digital: 5 pages HTML
Company: Thomson Gale (2003)
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Finally, a book that addresses your concerns about DID

From Eve to Sybil to Truddi Chase, the media have long chronicled the lives of people with dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder. The Dissociative Identity Disorder Sourcebook serves as a much-needed bridge for communication between the dissociative individual and therapists, family, and friends who also have to learn to deal with the effects of this truly astonishing disorder.

Author: Deborah Haddock
Paperback: 224 pages
Company: McGraw-Hill (2001-07-31)
ISBN: 0737303948
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This digital document is a journal article from Behaviour Research and Therapy, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The present study aimed to determine interidentity retrieval of emotionally valenced words in dissociative identity disorder (DID). Twenty-two DID patients participated together with 25 normal controls and 25 controls instructed to simulate DID. Two wordlists A and B were constructed including neutral, positive and negative material. List A was shown to one identity, while list B was shown to another identity claiming total amnesia for the words learned by the first identity. The identity claiming amnesia was tested for intrusions from list A words into the recall of words from list B and recognition of the words learned by both identities. Test results indicated no evidence of total interidentity amnesia for emotionally valenced material in DID. It is argued that dissociative amnesia in DID may more adequately be described as a disturbance in meta-memory functioning instead of an actual retrieval inability.

Author: R.J.C. Huntjens, M.L. Peters, L. Woertman, van der
Digital: 14 pages HTML
Company: Elsevier (2007-04-01)
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Every therapist who has worked with adult survivors of severe child abuse is aware of the perils associated with helping to rebuild an adult psyche shattered in childhood. All too often, in their efforts to identify and go beyond the defenses and compensatory tactics of young victims who elect to numb themselves to the pain of abuse, many bright, well-meaning therapists find themselves hopelessly entangled in therapeutic and interpersonal traps. How, in today's increasingly litigious climate, can therapists be sure that they are pursuing the most rational and effective course of treatment while, at the same time, safeguarding themselves against common professional snares? This book may provide the answer.

In Rebuilding Shattered Lives, James A. Chu, MD, describes a proven approach to the assessment and treatment of post-traumatic and dissociative disorders developed at the Dissociative Disorders and Trauma Program at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Drawing on his extensive empirical research and more than a decade's clinical experience specializing in treating survivors of severe abuse, Dr. Chu also offers valuable insights into all the major areas of trauma-related symptomatology and provides the most detailed explanation of dissociative theory currently in print. And, with the help of numerous vignettes and case examples, he clearly illustrates common clinical dilemmas encountered when dealing with survivors of severe abuse as well as the most effective techniques for resolving them.

The book opens with an integrated, up-to-date account of trauma theory and symptomatology. Chapters focus on complex dissociative and post-traumatic symptoms, difficulties in development and maturation, amnesia and other traumatic memory problems, and differential diagnosis. In the following section, Dr. Chu outlines his treatment strategies and offers valuable guidelines on managing self-destructive behavior, controlling dissociative and post-traumatic symptomatology, and navigating the maze of the therapeutic relationship. Concluding chapters are devoted to special topics and include a review of the latest treatment strategies for dissociative identity disorder, crisis intervention, and working with regressed and "impossible" patients.

Rebuilding Shattered Lives is an important working resource for mental health workers of all levels of experience. Throughout, the writing style is clear, and complex theories are explained with an emphasis on how they provide the conceptual basis for a rational, responsible, and safe approach to treatment.

"A major contribution to the clinical trauma literature by one of the field's most experienced clinicians." --Christine Courtois, PhD author of Healing the Incest Wound

"Dr. Chu brings calm lucidity to controversies around trauma, integrates recent advances in the field with traditional therapy strengths and provides clinicians with a balanced and sensible phase-oriented treatment approach. Best of all, in this volume he has deepened his area of greatest strength, working with relational challenges faced and posed in therapy by individuals with complex post-traumatic disorders." --Denise J. Gelinas, PhD Harvard Medical School.

"Dr. James Chu charts a deliberate and thoughtful approach to the treatment of severely traumatized patients. Written in a straightforward style and richly illustrated with clinical vignettes, Rebuilding Shattered Lives is filled with practical advice on therapeutic technique and clinical management. This is a reassuring book that moves beyond the confusion and controversies to address the critical underlying issues and integrate traditional psychotherapy with more recent understanding of the effects of trauma and pathological dissociation." --Frank W. Putnam, MD.

Author: James A. Chu
Paperback: 271 pages
Company: Wiley (1998-04-30) (1998-04-16)
ISBN: 0471247324
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A Volume in the Jossey-Bass Library of Current Clinical Technique

Discusses clinical treatment, including cognitive therapy, psychodynamic therapy, short-term in-patient treatment, longer term hospitalization, and the correct use of hypnosis. Also discussed is how the study of this controversial diagnosis reveals the inner workings of the normal functioning mind.

Author: James L. Spira
Paperback: 388 pages
Company: Jossey-Bass (1996-06-13)
ISBN: 0787903299
List Price: $48.50
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Life is an ongoing struggle for patients who have been chronically traumatized.

They typically have a wide array of symptoms, often classified under different combinations of comorbidity, which can make assessment and treatment complicated and confusing for the therapist.

Many patients have substantial problems with daily living and relationships, including serious intrapsychic conflicts and maladaptive coping strategies. Their suffering essentially relates to a terrifying and painful past that haunts them. Even when survivors attempt to hide their distress beneath a facade of normality—a common strategy—therapists often feel besieged by their many symptoms and serious pain. Small wonder that many survivors of chronic traumatization have seen several therapists with little if any gains, and that quite a few have been labeled as untreatable or resistant.

In this book, three leading researchers and clinicians share what they have learned from treating and studying chronically traumatized individuals across more than 65 years of collective experience. Based on the theory of structural dissociation of the personality in combination with a Janetian psychology of action, the authors have developed a model of phase-oriented treatment that focuses on the identification and treatment of structural dissociation and related maladaptive mental and behavioral actions. The foundation of this approach is to support patients in learning more effective mental and behavioral actions that will enable them to become more adaptive in life and to resolve their structural dissociation. This principle implies an overall therapeutic goal of raising the integrative capacity, in order to cope with the demands of daily life and deal with the haunting remnants of the past, with the “unfinished business” of traumatic memories.

Of interest to clinicians, students of clinical psychology and psychiatry, as well as to researchers, all those interested in adult survivors of chronic child abuse and neglect will find helpful insights and tools that may make the treatment more effective and efficient, and more tolerable for the suffering patient.

Author: Onno van der Hart, Ellert R. S. Nijenhuis, Kathy Steele
Hardcover: 440 pages
Company: W. W. Norton & Company (2006-11-17)
ISBN: 0393704017
List Price: $49.95
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Discover groundbreaking findings on a hidden epidemic -- and why it so often is misdiagnosed.

You peer into the mirror and have trouble recognizing yourself. You feel as if you're going through the motions of life or you're watching a movie of yourself.

These are all symptoms of dissociation -- a debilitating psychological condition involving feelings of disconnection that affects 30 million people in North America and often goes untreated. The Stranger in the Mirror offers unique guidelines for identifying and recovering from dissociative symptoms based on Dr. Marlene Steinberg's breakthrough diagnostic test. Filled with fascinating case histories of people with multiple personalities, this book provides enlightening insights into how all of us respond to trauma and overcome it. Her innovative method of treatment will benefit anyone in search of a healthier sense of self and a heightened capacity for joy.

Author: Marlene Steinberg, Maxine Schnall
Paperback: 344 pages
Company: Harper Perennial (2001-10-09) (2001-10-09)
ISBN: 0060954876
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Over the last decade, the literature on therapy addressing trauma in children has expanded considerably, as has the literature on dissociation. Unfortunately, very little of this literature has addressed the issue of dissociation in children. At the same time, therapists working with children and adolescents have become increasingly aware of the occurrence of trauma and dissociation in their clients.

Dissociation in Traumatized Children and Adolescents is a groundbreaking text for the study of dissociation in young people. In eight unique and compelling case studies, the authors lay out detailed narratives that illustrate both therapy progression as well as the therapist’s reactions and thought process during case development. These case studies present many aspects of working with traumatized children who dissociate—trauma processing, attachment work, work with the family, interactions with the community—and give frank analysis of the difficulties clinicians encounter in various therapeutic situations and how and why they arrived at particular therapeutic decisions. While the book includes intensive analysis of each author’s theoretical framework as well as that of dissociation in general, it also shows clinicians, in the most practical terms, how to translate the theories of dissociation into action. No clinician interested in trauma and dissociation in children will want to be without this text.

Hardcover: 384 pages
Company: Routledge (2010-12-08)
ISBN: 0415877490
List Price: $44.95
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This digital document is an article from Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 3rd ed., brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The length of the article is 1460 words. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. The third edition of this authoritative, comprehensive, in-depth medical guide features information on medical topics in language accessible to adult laypersons. Disease/disorder articles typically cover definition; description; causes and symptoms; diagnosis; treatments; prevention; and more. Test/treatment articles typically cover definition; purposes; precautions; preparation; risks; normal and abnormal results; and much more.

Author: Rebecca, PhD Frey
Digital: 4 pages HTML
Company: Gale (2006)
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The article is excerpted from Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine.

Consult the second edition of this authoritative, comprehensive, in-depth medical guide for information on more than 1,700 medical topics in language accessible to adult laypersons. Presented in a single alphabetical sequence, articles range in length from one or two paragraphs for minor topics, to several pages or more for major topics. Disease/disorder articles typically cover definition; description; causes and symptoms; diagnosis; treatments; prevention; and more. Test/treatment articles typically cover definition; purposes; precautions; preparation; risks; normal and abnormal results; and much more. This second edition includes more than 200 new entries, 300 updated entries, approximately 650 color images and illustrations, and a comprehensive subject index. New features include biographical and historical sidebars throughout the text.

Disease/disorder articles contain some or all of the following sections:

Definitions -- brief dictionary-style definition of the disorder Descriptions -- overview of the disorder; who gets it and why Causes & symptoms -- process, substance or organism that produces the condition; any risk factors that increase susceptibility to the condition; signs and symptoms of the disease Diagnosis -- overview of procedures and tests used to diagnose the condition; how the test is done; who should be tested and when; time required; cost; whether it's typically covered by insurance Treatments -- overview of conventional methods of care or management of the condition, such as drugs, surgeries, physical therapy, etc. Alternative treatments -- overview of alternative/complementary therapies that may be used to treat the condition Prognosis -- probable outcome of the disease Preventions -- what actions can be taken to prevent the condition from occurring

Test/treatment articles contain some or all of the following sections:

Definitions -- brief dictionary-style definition of the test/treatment Purposes -- why and when this test/treatment is prescribed Precautions -- when this test/treatment should not be prescribed Descriptions -- overview of the test/treatment including cost, length of time required, procedures followed, whether typically covered by insurance Preparation -- pre-test treatment procedures, if any Aftercare -- post-test treatment procedures, if any Risks -- any complications/side effects commonly associated with the test/treatment Normal results -- for tests, describes the normal values; for treatments, describes the anticipated outcomes Abnormal results -- defines abnormal test values

Published/Released: December 2001

Author: Rebecca J. Frey PhD
Digital: HTML
Company: Thomson Gale (2002-01-01) (2004-12-16)
List Price: $5.99
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