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Depersonalization

II. Clinical Syndromes

Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital, Postgraduate Medical School

ABSTRACT

The conditions necessary for the formulation of a complaint of change in depersonalizaton terms have been examined and it has been concluded that depersonalization types of complaint arise as a result of the relative failure of integration of experience into the total organization of psychic functioning, whilst the latter remains relatively intact. Such failure of integration may affect different experiences and originate from a number of different causes. Depersonalization complaints thus merge with the complaints of many other conditions which involve a change in the relation of the individual to his self, his body or the outer world. They are related often only by a loose similarity of the terms used to describe the feelings of change. Many factors contribute to the terms actually used, not the least amongst which is the fundamental limitation of our language as a means of communicating changes in experience.

It is suggested that depersonalization should be used as a generic term for a number of different syndromes which, although sometimes overlapping, are yet quite distinct.

Case histories illustrating different depersonalization syndromes are presented.