The differences between schizophrenia, bipolar and dissociative personality.

Summary to learn to distinguish between these concepts of clinical psychology and psychiatry.

In psychology it is very easy to confuse concepts, since many times the categories used to classify mental phenomena have blurred boundaries. In addition, if you do not have much training in this field of science, it is easy to be left with doubts about what a definition referring to behavioral patterns means, something abstract.

In this article we will see what are the differences between bipolarity, schizophrenia and dissociative personality (or dissociative personality disorder), words that do not mean the same thing although they refer to a kind of division between the psychological elements of a person.

Definition of each psychological concept

To understand how we can distinguish between these concepts used in clinical psychology and psychiatry, we must first have a definition (even a basic one) of these terms. Let's get to it.

What is bipolarity and bipolar disorder?

Bipolarity is a broad and unofficial concept that refers to bipolar disorder.Bipolar disorder, a diagnostic label that is official as it appears in the main mental health diagnostic manuals.

By way of summary, we can say that bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which, without the person intending to or being able to control it, there are stages of depression, on the one hand, and stages of mania, on the other, and stages of mania in which the mood becomes very elevated and expansive..

Although there are different types of bipolar disorder, the most "pure" concept of it refers to what happens to a person who for several days in a row is deeply unmotivated, very sad and even unable to feel pleasure, and then suddenly goes on for several days in a row feeling a kind of very intense euphoria and beliefs that any goal can be achieved (almost literally, and with all the dangers that this implies).

Bipolar disorder is a severe mental health disorder in which there is a high risk of suicide attempts or exposure to very dangerous situations, and also often drastic changes in mood can appear along with distortions in the perception of things, such as delusions and even hallucinations.

What is schizophrenia?

Schizophrenia is a clinical concept linked to severe disturbances of the most basic mental processes, and is related to psychotic symptoms. is related to psychotic symptoms characterized by a severe alteration of perception and the performance of abnormal behaviors, often involving exposure to danger.

The ways in which schizophrenia expresses itself are so varied that it has even been debated whether schizophrenia is really an it has even been debated whether it is really a single clinical entity or several with little relation to each other in terms of its causes. in terms of its causes.

For example, in some cases delusions and hallucinations appear together with an inability to communicate in an organized manner, sometimes psychotic symptoms of perception are combined with catatonic stupor and loss of consciousness, and often all this is combined with a strange way of expressing emotions (sometimes it seems that one has no emotions, sometimes the emotions do not correspond to what is happening).

What is dissociative personality?

Dissociative personality refers to what is known as dissociative identity disorder. dissociative identity disorder, formerly known as multiple personality disorder..

It is a diagnostic category that carries a lot of controversy because there are very few documented cases of it and therefore it has not been studied much, and its symptoms have not been described in a very consistent way.

In general terms, dissociative identity disorder is associated with symptoms such as the inability to remember certain experiences at certain times. inability to remember certain experiences at certain times but not at othersThe feeling of decomposition of one's own personality and of the flow of time.

In addition, dissociative identity disorder often appears in people who have been through traumatic experiences, which has fueled the idea that it is part of a way of coping with memories that cannot be accepted or experienced without great stress. But this is only a hypothesis.

Differences between schizophrenia, bipolar, and dissociative personality

With what we have been able to see so far, we can already begin to understand what the differences are between dissociative personality, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

1. Bipolar disorder is emotion-based

Although bipolar disorder can go hand in hand with hallucinations and delusions, what characterizes it are the alternations between very extreme moods.It is for this reason that it is part of the category of mood disorders.

On the other hand, in most of the occasions people with bipolar disorder have no problem communicating consistently (although on occasion they may choose not to speak due to the lack of motivation and energy characteristic of the depressive stage).

2. In dissociative identity the key is memory

In the definitions of dissociative identity disorder, alterations in the experiencing of memories are the central element.

This means that in most cases an inability to remember events is described, and sometimes even reference is sometimes even a reference is made to a "compartmentalized" memory, as if in one and the same body there were "compartmentalized" memories.as if there were several people in the same body capable of accessing memories that no one else can access.

In reality, however, this absolute division between remembered contents does not exist as such, and is only apparent.

3. Schizophrenia is not limited to emotions or memory.

Another difference between schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and dissociative identity disorder is that the former has a much greater variety of symptom types. the former has a much greater variety of symptom types that go beyond emotional and memory that go beyond emotional and memory blocks.

4. In each case the "division" in the psychological processes is different.

In these two concepts the idea that there is a division between psychological processes appears.

In bipolar disorder, this division occurs with the qualitative change of one with the qualitative change from one emotional state to another..

In dissociative identity, the changes occur when some memories become blocked and when others become accessible.

And in schizophrenia, it seems that it is the psychological processes themselves that are separated from each other, and not their contents.The emotional part sometimes does not correspond to the processes of perception of the environment, the latter do not correspond to the functioning of the senses, etc.

On the other hand, it is not typical of schizophrenia to go through stages in which some symptoms appear together for several days in a row and then move on to another phase in which another group of totally different symptoms emerge, as happens with bipolar disorder.

Bibliographic references:

• Ali, A. (2016). Schizophrenia, Symptoms, Types, Causes, and Treatment. OnHealth
• Lilienfeld, S. O., and Lynn, S. J. (2014). Dissociative identity disorder: a contemporary scientific perspective. Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology, 2nd Ed. eds S. O. Lilienfeld, S. J. Lynn, and J. M. Lohr. New York: Guilford Press).