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Updated: Jun 19, 2026
09:55
Use of a Psychophysiological Script-driven Imagery Experiment to Study Trauma-related Dissociation in Borderline Personality Disorder
Published on: March 8, 2018
Mirror writing and a dissociative identity disorder
Catherine Le1, Joyce Smith, Lewis Cohen
1Department of Neurology at the University of California, Davis, 4860 Y Street, Sacramento, CA 95817, USA.
Case Reports in Medicine
|October 30, 2009
Summary
Individuals with dissociative identity disorder (DID) exhibit diverse talents, such as language switching or altered handedness. One patient demonstrated unique mirror writing skills during a cognitive assessment, highlighting the disorder's unique presentation.
Area of Science:
- Psychiatry
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
Background:
- Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states.
- Individuals with DID often display a range of altered abilities and talents associated with different dissociative states.
Observation:
- A case study involving a patient diagnosed with DID revealed an unusual skill during a cognitive evaluation.
- The patient spontaneously produced mirror writing, a rare phenomenon, while completing a sentence for the Folstein Mini-Mental State Exam.
Findings:
- The emergence of mirror writing in a DID patient suggests a potential link between dissociative states and specific, idiosyncratic cognitive or motor skills.
- This observation underscores the highly variable and unique manifestations of dissociative experiences.
Implications:
- Further research is warranted to explore the neurological and psychological underpinnings of such unique talent manifestations in DID.
- Understanding these idiosyncratic skills may offer new insights into the complex nature of dissociative disorders and their impact on cognitive function.
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