Diagnosis and therapy of the dissociative (identity) disorder

In North America, dissociative disorders have gained a central position in psychiatric research of the last 20 years. Their most severe form, the diss ociative identity disorder has been explored with utmost thoroughness. The dissociative identity disorder seems to be a complex posttraumatic diso rder with a central etiological role of sexual traumatizations in early chi ldhood. Critics, however, expressed their doubts about the validity of the posttraumatic model and the psychiatric diagnosis itself. They assume it to be a matter of the cultural and suggestive impact of the media and of impr oper psychotherapy. In the present article evidence is provided about the arguments of the soci o-cognitive model being scientifically unsubstantiated. A bulk of empirical results supports the assumption that dissociative identity disorder and si milar diseases regularly occur both in North America and Europe, but they a re rather rarely diagnosed. Therefore, it seemes both to make sense and be necessary to develop diagnostic and treatment programs for dissociative ide ntity disorders and to promote their implementation.