The Nature of Psychotic Symptoms: Traumatic in Origin and Dissociative in Kind?

Abstract
What is the nature of psychotic symptoms, and what relevance do they have to dissociation and dissociative disorders? For many decades, trauma and dissociation clinicians have complained – rightly so – that the disorders of those we work with are not adequately recognized by the wider mental health community. Misdiagnosis of traumatized individuals as psychotic appears to be common, which subjects them to inappropriate, ineffective and, at times, dangerous treatments. Because of this justifiable concern, those in the trauma and dissociation field have sometimes viewed psychosis and psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia simply as exclusionary phenomena -- biologically-based experiences that share little with those of their patients or clients. But this limited viewpoint hides a deeper truth – that some, if not most, psychotic symptoms may, and perhaps often do, have their genesis in traumatic experiences and can be understood from a dissociation perspective. This webinar will seek to illuminate these deeper truths.
 
Potential to Distress: No 
 
This presentation was originally presented as a live webinar in May 2023.
 

Target Audience

Intermediate

Learning Objectives

Upon Completion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

  • Describe two limitations in the current use of the term ‘psychosis’
  • Discuss a model linking the development of delusions to traumatic experiences and memory processes
  • Describe evidence linking voice hearing (auditory verbal hallucinations) to dissociation
  • Identify two characteristics of potential relevance for the differential diagnosis between psychotic and dissociative disorders.
Course summary
Available credit: 
  • 1.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 1.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. ISSTD maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2021 – 08/20/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education credits.
  • 1.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 1.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program.
Course opens: 
01/30/2023
Course expires: 
12/31/2050
ISSTD Member cost:
$35.00
Your Price:
$55.00
Part of: 
2023 Webinar Pass
Rating: 
0
Presenter: Andrew Moskowitz, PhD
Presenter Bio: Andrew Moskowitz, PhD (Boston University, 1991), is a psychologist and university professor who has been active in the trauma and dissociation field for more than 25 years and is known as an authority on the relation between dissociation and psychosis, as well as the relation between dissociation and violence. He is a former president of the European Society for Trauma and Dissociation (ESTD) and was on the four-member WHO task force charged with drafting the ICD-11 Dissociative Disorders diagnostic criteria. Dr. Moskowitz was awarded ISSTD’s Pierre Janet writing award in 2010 for the first edition of Psychosis, Trauma and Dissociation (Wiley, 2008). The second edition of this influential book was published in 2019. He has published more than 50 articles and book chapters and given keynote presentations in conferences around the world, as well as webinars and trainings for APA, ISSTD, ESTD and various groups of psychologists and psychiatrists. As an academic, Dr. Moskowitz has taught and supervised thousands of undergraduate and graduate psychology students, as well as medical students, in universities in New Zealand, the UK and Europe. He returned to the United States in 2022 to lead the Forensic Psychology program at George Washington University in Alexandria, Virginia, having been trained as a forensic psychologist in Massachusetts in the 1990s and having worked in the prison and forensic mental health systems in the US, United Kingdom and New Zealand.

Participants who attend the webinar live and wish to claim CE credits must do so within 30 days of the live by completing the webinar evaluation. After this time, participants will be required to watch the webinar recording and take a quiz in addition to the evaluation in order to claim CE credits.

Available Credit

  • 1.50 APA
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation maintains responsibility for this program and its content.
  • 1.50 ASWB ACE
    The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), #1744, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. ISSTD maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 08/20/2021 – 08/20/2024. Social workers completing this course receive 1.50 continuing education credits.
  • 1.50 ISSTD Certificate Program
    This program is eligible for 1.50 credits in the ISSTD Certificate Program.

Price

ISSTD Member cost:
$35.00
Your Price:
$55.00
Please login or register to take this course.

"Your Price" above reflects your final price based on your membership status and career level. 

  • ISSTD defines a student as those enrolled in a program of study leading to a degree or certification in the mental health field and who have an interest in trauma and dissociation. 
  • ISSTD defines an emerging professional as mental health professionals who have completed an advanced degree and are in the first three years of their career (or first three years after graduation for researchers).
  • If you do not fall into one of the above categories please register as Professional/Retired. 

These prices are for Tier I countries. For a list of countries by Tier click here. If you are located in a country that falls into Tier II-VI please contact ISSTD at cfas@isst-d.org to receive the appropriate discount code. 

Cancellation Policy
All purchases of recorded content are final.