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Somatoform Dissociation: Phenomena, Measurement and Theoretical Issues, by Ellert R.S. Nijenhuis. First American Edition, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 2004,243 pp.
Current interest in dissociative disorders is focused primarily on psychological manifestations such as dissociative amnesia, depersonalization and derealization, and identity disorders. The essential features of dissociative disorders, as outlined in DSM-JV(American Psychiatric Association, 1994), are disruptions in mental functions including consciousness, memory, and perception. In this diagnostic scheme, the connection of dissociative disorder to hysteria, as described by Briquet (1859), Charcot (1877), and particularly by Janet (1893), has been obscured. Somatic phenomena that were central in the symptomatology of hysteria, including somatization, pain, conversion, sexual and body dysmorphic disorders, are not included in the DSM-IV classifications of the dissociative disorders. The ICD-10 (World Health Organization, 1992) does recognize dissociative disorders of movement and sensation, but does not include the broader range of somatic expressions of hysteria observed in the seminal 19th century work.
The overall objective of the work presented in this volume is to renew the recognition of the somatic (somatoform) components of dissociative disorders and their interaction with psychological features, as emphasized by Janet and others, and to carry out empirical examination of these disorders, using measures developed for this purpose. Nijenhuis and his colleagues define somatoform dissociation as "dissociative symptoms that phenomenologically involve the body. The adjective 'somatoform' indicates that the physical symptoms suggest, but can not be explained by a medical condition, or by the direct effects of a substance" (p. 12). They reserve the term "somatic" for symptoms that could be expressions of somatic disease. Somatoform dissociation refers to the partial or complete loss of the normal integration of somatoform components of experiences and functions. The position of the authors, following Janet, is that somatoform and psychological dissociation are highly intertwined phenomena and both may stem from a common source.
The major work presented in the book consists of nine previously published papers. One of these was adapted for this volume; the others are presented as published. An additional chapter and the introduction and concluding chapters were presumably written for this volume, since no other sources are cited.
The focus of the empirical work concerns the development, psychometric features, and clinical applications of a self-report...