In one week, a psychologist at a district hospital in Pune meets three new clients. Geeta, 19, says that at times she seems to watch herself from outside her body, like a person in a film, and her own home feels strange and far away. Anjali, 28, has no pain or other bodily complaint, yet she is sure that she will get cancer one day soon; every night she reads about it and asks her doctor for fresh tests. Sunil, 30, at times speaks in a child's voice and calls himself 'Bittu'; on other days he turns into a stern man named 'Major Singh'. Later he cannot say what 'Bittu' or 'Major Singh' did.
Which disorder best describes what Geeta experiences?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Depersonalisation/derealisation disorder
Option (1) Dissociative amnesia — Incorrect. Dissociative amnesia is a loss of memory for personal events, often after stress, with no known organic cause. Geeta has not lost any memory, so it does not fit.
Option (2) Dissociative identity disorder — Incorrect. Dissociative identity disorder means the person takes on alternate personalities. That fits Sunil, not Geeta: she stays one person, and only her sense of self and of the world changes.
Option (3) Conversion disorder — Incorrect. Conversion disorder is a loss of a motor or sensory function, such as paralysis or blindness, with no physical cause. Geeta has no such loss in her body.
Option (4) Depersonalisation/derealisation disorder — Correct. Geeta watching herself from outside is a change of self-perception (depersonalisation). Her home feeling strange and far away is a changed sense of reality (derealisation). Together they form the dreamlike state of being separated from self and from reality.
NCERT (2026-27): “Dissociative Disorders … “disorder involves a dreamlike state in which the person has a sense of being separated both from self and from reality. In depersonalisation, there is a change of self-perception, and the person’s sense of reality is temporarily lost or changed. …” |