Dissociative disorders can be defined as persistent and maladaptive disruptions in the integration of memory, consciousness, or identity. It is a break in the mental processes of connection between events. There are four types of dissociative disorders: depersonalization disorder, dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, and dissociative identity disorder.

Depersonalization disorder can be defined as a persistent and pervasive feeling of being detached from oneself that leads to significant distress and functional impairment. The depersonalization experience cannot occur in the presence of another disorder, and during that period, reality testing, such as the date and time, remains intact. This disorder is highly comorbid with panic disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. Dissociative amnesia is characterized by a sudden inability to recall extensive and important personal information. The onset is sudden and may be a result of immediate stress or trauma. There are five types of dissociative amnesia: localized forgetting, selective forgetting, generalized forgetting, continuous forgetting, and systematized forgetting. There is not much information known about this disorder, except that it is more common in young women and that when the memories return, there is amnesia for the amnesiac period of time. Dissociative fugue is a pretty rare disorder that is characterized by sudden, unplanned travel from home, with an inability to recall the past, and confusion about personal identity or the assumption of a new identity. Usually, the travel has some purpose, typically follows a traumatic event, is of a short duration, and the individual usually exhibits signs of refractory dissociative (selective) amnesia. Finally, dissociative identity disorder (also known as multiple personality disorder) is characterized by the existence of two or more distinct identities in a single individual, with each personality potentially possessing separate names and histories. There seems to be a dominance hierarchy across the personalities in that more passive identities have more restricted memories, while more hostile personalities have more complete memories.

Somatoform disorders are characterized by unusual physical symptoms in the absence of any known physical pathology and usual lead to unnecessary medical treatments. The five categories of this disorder (according to the DSM- IV are conversion, somatization, hypochondriasis, pain, and body dysmorphic disorders.

Individuals who meet the criteria for conversion disorder usually complain of physical symptoms that mimic neurological diseases such as blindness, numbing or paralysis, although this makes no anatomical sense. Somatization disorders are characterized by persistent, multiple, somatic complaints, such as gastrointestinal symptoms, in the absence of organic impairments. Patients usually present their symptoms in a dramatic, self-centered fashion or, sometimes, in a flippant, indifferent attitude. Hypochondriasis is defined by a preoccupying fear or belief that one is going to die or is suffering form physical illness, which usually results in significant functional impairment. Disorders that fall into this category fall just short of being characterized as delusions, and are more serious than normal, fleeting worries; therefore, the preoccupying fear or belief must last for at least six months without being alleviated by a thorough examination. Pain disorder is a preoccupation with pain. Finally, body dysmorphic disorder, a very unusual and rare disorder, is characterized by constant preoccupation with some imagined defect in physical appearance and usually focuses on a facial feature.