Dissociative Amnesia: A Case Study of Scout

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The following case study is of a male client, Scout, suffering from localized dissociative amnesia without a fugue state. Dissociative amnesia is when a person cannot remember information about their life. This forgetting can be thematic like specific events, or general, which can be life history or identity. Some people can be affected by both types of forgetting. Dissociative amnesia is much greater memory life than normal forgetting. This often interferes with their professional and social life.

Patient

Scout is a 31 year old male who works as an accountant. He is tall and athletic with a quiet, shy demeanor. He has been engaged to his girlfriend Thelma for six months. Scout was put up for adoption at birth and was in the foster care system his whole life. He was a rambunctious child, causing him to be bounced from house to house over seven times. Scout doesn’t remember any child abuse, but after middle school he was removed from his foster parents house and they were arrested for child abuse. His fiance, Thelma, says he rarely talked about middle school, but about a month ago she asked him about it and said, “he appeared bewildered.” He has a difficult time creating long lasting relationships because he often leaves all decision making to his partner …show more content…

He has shown signs of localized amnesia and is unable to remember most of middle school, or ages eleven to fourteen. Congruent with the diagnosis, he has retained procedural memory (how to play the trumpet) and semantic memory (basic algebra), but not episodic memory. Scout also displays some symptoms of dependant personality disorder (personality disorder symptoms are common in those with dissociative). In the past he has committed self harm, but has no history of suicide attempts. I am diagnosing Scout with dissociative amnesia instead of PTSD because he has forgotten years, instead of just traumatic

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