Week 3 Case study PSY/410
October 15, 2013

Week 3 Case study
Anna O was one of the few people that were diagnosed with multiple personality disorder (MPD). Individuals who resemble this personality disorder type have an impoverished and or unstable self-structure and difficulty maintaining enduring and fulfilling intimate relationships, self-concept in easily disrupted under stress, and often associated with the experience of a lack of identity or chronic feeling of emptiness (Skodol, Bender, Morey, Clark, Oldham, Alarcon, & Siever, 2011). This was the way that many of the things such as sexual and verbal abuse from both of her parents had caused to her. She had two different types of personalities and they were very different. Her first personality was very caring and very melancholic, while the other was very mean and caused physical harm to others, even did things such as ripping buttons off the bed.
She was born in Vienna and she was Jewish. She first went to see Dr. Breuer in November and this was the only person for a long time that she was able to trust. Breuer was the one that she opened up to the most and the person that she was able to just sit there and fell comfortable with. Dissociative process are part of normal functioning, although the propensity for their use varies among individuals, many kinds of stressful events, such as natural disasters and combat fatigue can produce extreme dissociative phenomena (Meyer, Chapman, & Weaver, 2009). When she was a child she was able to care for her father whose health declined in the coming times. He developed pleurisy abscess which is the probable cause of the tuberculosis and this was thought to be the cause of Anna’s symptoms. When Anna’s symptoms began she started slowly with the complaints of vision and hearing problems, from that it went to neck pain, headaches and anesthesia in her right arm. Shortly after complaining of these symptoms she became mute for more than two weeks, it was after this mute period that she developed the MPD and would go between the two without any warning at all. When her personalities started appearing Breuer was able to tell that her personalities were developed very much different and very much opposite to each other. One was very melancholy, experienced mood swings, and periods of not remembering anything. The other personality was just plain mean, antisocial and naughty by what Anna was able to explain. Breuer was able to call the other personality by simply showing her some oranges and the only way that she was able to go between them, the oranges had been the only thing that she wanted to eat for a period of time. And even came to a point where she would only eat if she was spoon fed by Breuer. All the symptoms that she was feeling were started the summer that her father became ill. Many of her symptoms were cleared and again in the summer re occurred. Anna once again started with her symptoms and this is when she told Breuer that she was pregnant by him. Although this was not true she had that belief in her mind. Her symptoms were cleared and she was able to pursue a path that she always wanted. She became a social worker for an orphanage in Germany. After all that had happened to her a stamp was released in her Honor of Anna O.
In conclusion this all has pretty much summed up much of the things that can happen to someone that has personality disorder. Why does this happen? Many will say that it has to be an even in your life that will trigger you to be someone that you are not. This is kind of like a shield that will protect you in the eyes of the hurtful event. Not only will the person suffer past traumas but it will mask the pain that they feel.

Outline for week 3 (Anxiety, Somatoform, and Dissociative Disorders)
Anxiety Disorders
Dissociative Disorders
Somatoform Disorders

A. Description of Categories
1. Acute Stress Disorder, Agoraphobia without History of Panic Disorder, Anxiety