Dissociative detachment and memory impairment: Reversible amnesia or encoding failure?

The authors propose that clinicians endeavor to differentiate between rever sible and irreversible memory failures in patients with dissociative sympto ms who report "memory gaps" and "lost time." The classic dissociative disor ders, such as dissociative amnesia and dissociative identity disorder, enta il reversible memory failures associated with encoding experience in altere d states. The authors propose another realm of memory failures associated w ith severe dissociative detachment that may preclude the level of encoding of ongoing experience needed to support durable autobiographical memories. They describe how dissociative detachment may be intertwined with neurobiol ogical factors that impair memory, and they spell out the significance of d istinguishing reversible and irreversible memory impairment for diagnosis, patient education, psychotherapy, and research. Copyright (C) 1999 by W.B. Saunders Company.