A trauma survivor with sudden, dramatic memory loss continues to function well in complex daily tasks. Why does this combination support the diagnosis rather than suggesting the presentation is exaggerated?
The phenomenon's own text directly addresses this: the striking preservation of complex skills and social behaviour alongside profound, trauma-linked memory loss is a recognised and characteristic feature of genuine dissociative amnesia, not, on its own, evidence of exaggeration — though the distinction from malingering can be genuinely difficult in some contexts, particularly forensic ones, and should be approached carefully rather than assumed either way.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Ch. 5, 'Disorders of Memory'.