2008.07.10
Q&A: Fugue States
I was asked an interesting question today while talking about Agatha Christie. I only recently became interested in her (very unfortunately, as it turns out) because of the recent Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp." In this episode, it is revealed that Agatha Christie's disappearance is a result of her connection with an alien who is, essentially, a giant wasp. This connection causes her amnesia when the wasp drowns, and the Doctor leaves her at the hotel a few days in the future.
Naturally, I wondered about her real disappearance and so I did some minor research into the issue, and found out that she really did disappear. Her husband had been having an affair with Nancy Neele (and her mother had recently passed away) and she disappeared and was found days later staying at the Harrogate Hotel by the name of Teresa Neele. She claimed to have suffered amnesia and could not account for the events which took place between her disappearance and her reappearance. Some have speculated whether or not this was a publicity stunt or an actual nervous break-down which induced a fugue state.
So, talking about that today, I was asked about fugue states: how do they come about?
My initial answer was that they come about when the mind suffers an overload, usually due to trauma, and the fugue state may act as a sort of protection against the raging emotions and the profound effects they elicit.
The DSM defines a fugue state as:
- Sudden, unexpected travel away from home or one's customary place of work, with inability to recall one's past,
- Confusion about personal identity, or the assumption of a new identity, or
- Significant distress or impairment.
I have some qualms with the DSM as I think it only really serves to give people labels which may impair proper treatment. That does not mean I do not think it cannot be a valuable resource, because it can. For one thing, it is a great collection of psychological terms and conditions and what may constitute various disorders. However, I think it has the potential to do a great deal of harm, and has probably helped to misdiagnose people as something which they are not. But, I digress.
I thought about fugue states some more, especially since I was prompted by further questioning such as "Why a fugue state and not something else?" I stick to my initial answer on this: a dissociative fugue state can result from the introduction of a traumatic event with which the mind has a hard time processing and resolving. However, after more thought, this seemed somewhat inadequate. Some people go into fugue states and others do not -- therefore, there must be some other factor that makes some people more prone to fugue states than others. But what are they?
That list has the potential to be very, very huge. There are a multitude of things, and no one thing can be said to be the sole identifier of someone who will have a fugue state in response to some sort of traumatic crisis. Some of these are:
- Developmental aspects: How was the person raised? What was their environment like? Their parents?
- Temperament: surely, there must be some temperamental styles which are more conducive to producing fugue states than others. I think a study in this has the potential to be fruitful, but also hard because you cannot force people into a fugue state or traumatize them. I am fairly certain the IRB would have seriously strong objections to that. For that reason, a qualitative analysis would probably be the best start. Most of the articles I searched concerned diagnosing, though my search cannot be said to be completely thorough.
- Medical history is also a factor. For instance, does the person have a history of psychiatric disorders or not? While not necessarily conclusive, I think this could help -- but any person using this would have to be extremely careful to not make stereotypical judgments.
- Cognitive and biological: Genes: genomes and epigenomes. The make up of the brain. How the person organizes the world, and how they have learned to respond to trauma.
This list is by no means conclusive. It only lists some of my more immediate thoughts on the matter. But this questioning and researching has definitely got me interested. And not only in fugue states, but in Agatha Christie as well. Fugues states are definitely an odd response, but not entirely impossible to understand. For that reason, I think Agathie Christie (and any other person who went into a fugue state) would be an interesting psychobiographical study. Perhaps I will find myself doing one on her later in my life. Right now, I'm absorbed in Isaac Asimov.
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