220 PSYCHOLOGY
personality disorder.In the book The Three Faces of Eve,and the film of the
same name, Eve’s original self splits into two selves, Eve White and Eve Black.
Eve White is polite, organized, and moral. Eve Black is bratty, spoiled, and
immoral. Eve White is called the superior personality,the personality that most
closely resembles the normal, socialized one. Eve Black is called the inferior per-
sonality,the personality that is wild and carefree and resembles the Freudian id.
Since the publication of this famous case history there have been a number of sim-
ilar books published. Clinical psychology and psychiatry accept the reality of DID.
Popular reports suggest, incorrectly, that the condition is common. Psychiatry
looks upon the condition as rare.
Depersonalization disorderis characterized by a disturbance in the way in
which the individual perceives the self. The troubled person may imagine that he
or she is ugly, looks bloated, possesses legs that are too short, or has an excessively
loud voice. These perceptions are unsettling. Sometimes victims of the disorder
have an out-of-body experience,an experience in which it seems that the self
is somehow walking or floating outside of the physical body.(a) What is an older name for dissociative identity disorder (DID)?(b) disorder is characterized by a disturbance in the way in which the individ-
ual perceives the self.
Answers: (a) Multiple personality disorder; (b) Depersonalization.The Mood Disorders: Emotional Ups and Downs
Mood disordersare characterized by significant variations in emotional states.
Moodis experienced as positive or negative. A positive moodis associated with
feeling well and optimistic thinking. A negative moodis associated with fatigue
and pessimistic thinking. Mood is an involuntary reaction; it cannot be directly
willed.
Four mood disorders will be identified: (1) dysthymia, (2) major depressive
disorder, (3) cyclothymia, and (4) bipolar disorder.
Dysthymiais characterized by mild, relatively persistent depression. Depres-
sionrefers to a negative mood state. As already indicated, such a state is associated
with fatigue and pessimistic thinking. Dysmeans something is wrong or “bad.”
The root thymiameans “mood” in Greek. An older term for dysthymia is neu-
rotic depression.
Major depressive episode is characterized by severe, highly persistent
depression. Lack of appetite, chronic fatigue, moving slowly, and sleep distur-
bances are symptoms of this disorder. The victim may think about suicide. The
disorder is in fact associated with an increased risk of actual suicide.
Both dysthymia and major depressive episode are classified as unipolar dis-