Psychogenic amnesia

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Dissociative Amnesia (formerly Psychogenic Amnesia) (DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders 300.12^[1]).

Dissociative Amnesia is popularized by popular culture, particularly film, related to trauma or general psychological disorientation. It is not the result of specific brain injury or disease (Amnesia)^[1].

Dissociative Amnesia has several subtypes^[1]: Selective Amnesia, Generalised Amnesia, Continuous Amnesia, Systematised Amnesia, and Dissociative Fugue^[1].

In the most radical form, Dissociative Fugue (DSM-IV Codes 300.13^[1]), people forget their name, family, and other identifying information. This is also called autobiographical amnesia.

A much more common form of Dissociative Amnesia, is where a person cannot recall a particular event or period of time, such as events during a violent crime. In general the memory loss must be more extensive than ordinary "forgetting". It is theorized that the information is too difficult or painful to retain. Because Dissociative Amnesia is a psychological phenomenon (not physiological) therapy can help with retrieving the information.

Cases

Image:DavidFitzpatrick.jpg

David Fitzpatrick, who suffered Dissociative Amnesia in 2005.

David Fitzpatrick – David Fitzpatrick, a 25-year-old British man, suffered Dissociative Amnesia on 4 December 2005 which wiped his entire memory clean, leaving him with no identity. The television documentary Extraordinary People: The Man with No Past^[1] followed Fitzpatrick as he tried to recover the life he had before, and discovered he had a dark past – heavy drinking, unemployment, sponging off family and friends, and failed relationships (one of which resulted in the birth of a daughter, now aged six years) – as well as a unique opportunity to start all over again.
The documentary Unknown White Male (2005)^[1] deals with subject Doug Bruce's Dissociative Amnesia; retrograde amnesia was ruled out as doctors were unable to find any physical basis for the amnesia^[1].
Joe Bieger – On 5 October 2006 Joe Bieger wandered the streets of Dallas, Texas, for 25 days.^[1]
Jeff Ingram – Jeff Ingram, a 40-year-old Olympia, Washington resident suffered a Dissociative Amnesia on 6 September 2006. He somehow made his way to Denver, Colorado, and wandered the streets before 'waking up' and asking doctors and police there for help in learning his own identity.^[1]
Kevin Mura found out who he was after searching the internet for missing persons. ^[1]

Fiction

The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Identity
Who Am I?
Clean Slate
Overboard
The Long Kiss Goodnight
The Raw Shark Texts

References

Other References

Prinzmetal, Bill. UC Berkeley "Issues in Cognitive Science" Lecture slides. Full lecture as pdf
"Memory Loss & The Brain" from Rutgers University.
Research on the Effect of Trauma on Memory Research has shown that traumatized individuals respond by using a variety of psychological mechanisms. One of the most common means of dealing with the pain is to try and push it out of awareness. Some label the phenomenon of the process whereby the mind avoids conscious acknowledgment of traumatic experiences as dissociative amnesia. Others use terms such as repression , dissociative state , traumatic amnesia, psychogenic shock, or motivated forgetting . Semantics aside, there is near-universal scientific acceptance of the fact that the mind is capable of avoiding conscious recall of traumatic experiences.
Summary of Research Examining the Prevalence of Full or Partial Dissociative Amnesia for Traumatic Events The most comprehensive review of the scientific literature on dissociative amnesia has been conducted by Brown, Scheflin and Hammond in their book, Memory, Trauma Treatment, and the Law . (New York: Norton, 1998). This book is viewed as setting the standard in the field after receiving the American Psychiatric Association's 1999 prestigious Manfred S. Guttmacher Award for best book in law and forensic psychiatry. Brown, Scheflin and Hammond reviewed 43 studies relevant to the subject of traumatic memory and found that every study that examined the question of dissociative amnesia in traumatized populations demonstrated that a substantial minority partially or completely forget the traumatic event experienced, and later recover memories of the event. Dissociative amnesia can occur after any type of traumatic event.
Ground Lost: The False Memory/Recovered Memory Therapy Debate, by Alan Scheflin, Psychiatric Times 11/99, Vol. XVI Issue 11 The appearance in the DSM-IV indicates that the concept of repressed memory is generally accepted in the relevant scientific community. This satisfies courts following the Frye v United States, 293 F.1013 (1923) or Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceutical, 113 S. Ct. 2786 (1993) rules regarding the admissibility of scientific testimony into evidence in court.

Although the science is limited on this issue, the only three relevant studies conclude that repressed memories are no more and no less accurate than continuous memories (Dalenberg, 1996; Widom and Morris, 1997; Williams, 1995). Thus, courts and therapists should consider repressed memories no differently than they consider ordinary memories.