Global Coherence and Autobiographical Reasoning in Life Narratives of People with Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Comparison with Adult, Child, and Psychosis Groups

This study examined autobiographical reasoning and three aspects of global coherence (i.e. temporal, causal-motivational, thematic) of life narratives in individuals with dissociative identity disorder (DID) assessed in both adult and child identity states (<i>n</i> = 13), a psychotic disorder (<i>n</i> = 18), general population adults (<i>n</i> = 49) and children (<i>n</i> = 26), and adults simulating being a child (<i>n</i> = 23). DID participants did not significantly differ between identity states in narrative coherence or autobiographical reasoning if additional predictors were included, although differences in causal-motivational coherence were found if total number of memories in the life-narrative was low. Both DID and psychosis groups displayed less temporal and causal-motivational coherence than non-psychiatric adults, with DID adults also showing less thematic coherence. Individuals with DID in child states demonstrated less temporal coherence than non-clinical child-simulators. Individuals with DID may have reduced coherence of narrative identity that does not differ between identities.