Abstract:

    Trauma occurs in the situations that the person faces with his/her inadequacy and goes beyond his/her subjective coping efforts in consequence of acute and chronic traumatic events like natural disasters, traffic accident, war, torture and childhood abuse and neglect. Dissociative disorders are one of the most frequent psychiatric symptoms are seen among people after trauma. Dissociation which is present in every person as a mechanism to serve adaptation normally, converts to a pathological process by using as an effort to handle particularly traumatic experience as a result of childhood trauma. Dissociative disorders which is an advanced form of this pathologic process, rather as acute reactions to stressful life events in the context of a certain underlying personality. In other words, disassociative disorders are a kind of defence mechanism oriented to traumatic experiences. Dissociative disorders are characterized by a disruption of and/or discontinuity in the normal integration of consciousness, memory, identity, emotion, perception, body representation, motor control and behavior (APA, 2013). This disorders, can start suddenly or permanently and also can be short‐term or permanent. Dissociative disorders have a long historical background. Today, dissociative disorders attract great attention and the importance of this cluster of the disorder has been increased in the field of psychiatry, clinical psychology and forensic sciences. In recent years, in the scope of expertise in forensic psychology and forensic psychiatry, the assessment on topics like difference of psychosis‐neurosis, disability retirement, criminal responsibility and malpractice in respect to disassociative disorders has a great importance. Dissociative disorders which indicate the close relationship with childhood traumatization among all kinds of mental disorders usually appear in the early ages, suicide attempts and self harming behaviors appeared frequently cause several vital complications, have high comorbidity and are treated completely by applying clinical and trauma‐centered psychotherapy methods, thus it has substantial importance in terms of preventative healthcare.

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