The Differences Between Schizophrenia, Bipolarity and Dissociative Personality

In psychology it is very easy to confuse concepts, since many times the categories used to classify mental phenomena have diffuse limits. Furthermore, if one does not have much training in this field of science, it is easy to remain doubtful about what a definition referring to patterns of behavior, something abstract, means.

In this article we will see what they 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 a person’s psychological elements.

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) about 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 a diagnostic label that is official as it appears in the main mental health diagnostic manuals.

As a summary, we can say that bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which, without the person intending it or being able to control it, stages of depression occur, on the one hand, 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 this refers to what happens to a person who for several days in a row is deeply unmotivated, very sad and is even unable to feel pleasure, and then, Suddenly, for several days in a row, you feel a kind of very intense euphoria and beliefs that you can achieve any goal (almost literally, and with all the dangers that this implies).

Bipolar disorder is a serious alteration of mental health in which there is a high risk of suicide attempts or exposure to very dangerous situations, and in addition many times 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 serious alterations of the most basic mental processes, and is related to psychotic symptoms characterized by a serious alteration in perception and the performance of abnormal behaviors that often involve exposing oneself to danger.

The ways in which schizophrenia is expressed are so varied that even It has been debated whether it is really a single clinical entity or several with little relationship with each other as to its causes.

For example, in some cases delusions and hallucinations appear along with an inability to communicate in an organized way, other times the psychotic symptoms of perception are combined with catatonic stupor and loss of consciousness, and in many cases all this is combined with a strange way of expressing emotions (sometimes it seems like you have no emotions, sometimes the emotions don’t correspond to what is happening).

What is dissociative personality?

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

It is a diagnostic category that entails a lot of controversy because there are very few documented cases of it and consequently it has not been able to be 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 inability to remember certain experiences at certain times but not at others the feeling of decomposition of one’s own personality and the flow of time.

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

Differences between schizophrenia, bipolarity and dissociative personality

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

1. Bipolar disorder is based on emotions

Although bipolar disorder can be accompanied by hallucinations and delusions, What characterizes it are the alternations between very extreme moods and that is why it is part of the category of mood disorders.

On the other hand, in most cases people with bipolar disorder have no problems communicating consistently (although sometimes they may choose not to speak due to the lack of motivation and energy typical of the depressive stage).

2. In dissociative identity the key is memory

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

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

Of course, in reality this absolute division between remembered content 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 first has a much larger variety of symptom types that go beyond the emotional and memory blocks.

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

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

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

In dissociative identity, 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 for 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.