Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II)

Background

About the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II)

The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II) is one of the most widely used self-report instruments designed to measure dissociative experiences, disruptions in awareness, altered states of consciousness, depersonalization, derealization, identity confusion, and memory disturbances.

The DES was originally developed by Eve Bernstein Carlson and Frank W. Putnam during the 1980s as a screening instrument for dissociative experiences in clinical and non-clinical populations.

The questionnaire evaluates a broad range of dissociative phenomena including absorption, spacing out, memory lapses, altered identity experiences, depersonalization, derealization, and disruptions in conscious awareness.

Research studies have demonstrated strong reliability and validity for the DES-II across trauma research, dissociation studies, clinical psychology, psychiatry, personality research, and consciousness research.

Psychological Domains Measured

Absorption and Imaginative Involvement
Measures deep mental absorption, fantasy immersion, spacing out, and altered attentional focus.

Depersonalization
Measures feelings of detachment from oneself, observing oneself externally, and altered self-experience.

Derealization
Measures feelings that surroundings, people, or reality seem unreal, distant, foggy, or unfamiliar.

Memory Disturbance
Measures memory gaps, amnesia-like experiences, forgetting actions, and disruptions in autobiographical memory.

Identity Confusion
Measures altered identity experiences, feeling unlike oneself, or experiencing different behavioral states.

Dissociative Awareness Disruption
Measures disruptions in attention, awareness, perception, consciousness, and continuity of experience.

The DES-II is commonly used in trauma research, dissociation studies, clinical psychology, psychiatry, and consciousness research. The questionnaire is intended as a screening instrument and should not be used as a standalone diagnostic tool.

Procedure

This questionnaire is designed to evaluate dissociative experiences, disruptions in awareness, altered states of consciousness, memory disturbances, and depersonalization-related experiences.

Participants select the percentage that best represents how often each experience occurs in everyday life when not under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The assessment focuses on experiences involving altered awareness, memory disruption, derealization, depersonalization, absorption, identity confusion, and dissociative experiences.

Participation

This assessment is designed for adolescents and adults interested in understanding emotional, behavioral, personality, cognitive, or psychological experiences related to the areas measured by this questionnaire.

This assessment is intended for educational, screening, and research purposes only.

Results should not be considered a clinical diagnosis or substitute for professional psychological or psychiatric evaluation.

Some dissociative experiences may occur occasionally in the general population, particularly during stress, fatigue, trauma, emotional overload, or highly immersive mental states.

Scoring & Interpretation

Each item is scored using percentage-based responses ranging from 0% to 100%, representing how often dissociative experiences occur in everyday life.

Scores are averaged across all items to calculate an overall dissociation score.

Higher scores generally indicate more frequent dissociative experiences, altered awareness, depersonalization, derealization, memory disturbances, or disruptions in conscious experience.

Domain scores are also calculated to measure specific dissociative dimensions including depersonalization, derealization, memory disturbance, identity confusion, and absorption.

Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II) Questionnaire

Instructions & Terms

Below is the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II), a digitally adapted 28- items self-assessment questionnaire. This assessment does not provide a clinical diagnosis, medical determination, or substitute for professional psychological evaluation.This questionnaire asks about experiences that may occur in daily life.

For each question, select the percentage that best reflects how often the experience happens to you when you are NOT under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

0% means Never.
100% means Always.

Answer honestly based on your typical experiences.

Question 1 of 28 Memory Disturbance

Some people have the experience of driving or riding in a car or bus or subway and suddenly realizing that they don’t remember what has happened during all or part of the trip.

Question 2 of 28 Dissociative Awareness Disruption

Some people find that sometimes they are listening to someone talk and they suddenly realize that they did not hear part or all of what was said.

Question 3 of 28 Memory Disturbance

Some people have the experience of finding themselves in a place and have no idea how they got there.

Question 4 of 28 Memory Disturbance

Some people have the experience of finding themselves dressed in clothes that they don’t remember putting on.

Question 5 of 28 Memory Disturbance

Some people have the experience of finding new things among their belongings that they do not remember buying.

Question 6 of 28 Identity Confusion

Some people sometimes find that they are approached by people that they do not know, who call them by another name or insist that they have met them before.

Question 7 of 28 Depersonalization

Some people sometimes have the experience of feeling as though they are standing next to themselves or watching themselves do something and they actually see themselves as if they were looking at another person.

Question 8 of 28 Identity Confusion

Some people are told that they sometimes do not recognize friends or family members.

Question 9 of 28 Memory Disturbance

Some people find that they have no memory for some important events in their lives (for example, a wedding or graduation).

Question 10 of 28 Identity Confusion

Some people have the experience of being accused of lying when they do not think that they have lied.

Question 11 of 28 Depersonalization

Some people have the experience of looking in a mirror and not recognizing themselves.

Question 12 of 28 Derealization

Some people have the experience of feeling that other people, objects, and the world around them are not real.

Question 13 of 28 Depersonalization

Some people have the experience of feeling that their body does not seem to belong to them.

Question 14 of 28 Absorption and Imaginative Involvement

Some people have the experience of sometimes remembering a past event so vividly that they feel as if they were reliving that event.

Question 15 of 28 Dissociative Awareness Disruption

Some people have the experience of not being sure whether things that they remember happening really did happen or whether they just dreamed them.

Question 16 of 28 Derealization

Some people have the experience of being in a familiar place but finding it strange and unfamiliar.

Question 17 of 28 Absorption and Imaginative Involvement

Some people find that when they are watching television or a movie they become so absorbed in the story that they are unaware of other events happening around them.

Question 18 of 28 Absorption and Imaginative Involvement

Some people find that they become so involved in a fantasy or daydream that it feels as though it were really happening to them.

Question 19 of 28 Dissociative Awareness Disruption

Some people find that they sometimes are able to ignore pain.

Question 20 of 28 Absorption and Imaginative Involvement

Some people find that they sometimes sit staring off into space, thinking of nothing, and are not aware of the passage of time.

Question 21 of 28 Identity Confusion

Some people sometimes find that when they are alone they talk out loud to themselves.

Question 22 of 28 Identity Confusion

Some people find that in one situation they may act so differently compared with another situation that they feel almost as if they were two different people.

Question 23 of 28 Dissociative Awareness Disruption

Some people sometimes find that in certain situations they are able to do things with amazing ease and spontaneity that would usually be difficult for them (for example, sports, work, social situations, etc.).

Question 24 of 28 Memory Disturbance

Some people sometimes find that they cannot remember whether they have done something or have just thought about doing that thing (for example, not knowing whether they have just mailed a letter or have just thought about mailing it).

Question 25 of 28 Memory Disturbance

Some people find evidence that they have done things that they do not remember doing.

Question 26 of 28 Memory Disturbance

Some people sometimes find writings, drawings, or notes among their belongings that they must have done but cannot remember doing.

Question 27 of 28 Identity Confusion

Some people sometimes find that they hear voices inside their head that tell them to do things or comment on things that they are doing.

Question 28 of 28 Derealization

Some people sometimes feel as if they are looking at the world through a fog, so that people and objects appear far away or unclear.

Psychometric Norms

Participants

78%

Community Mean

21.5%

Sample SD

99%

Highest Observed Score

56%

Lowest Observed Score

2026–2026

Collection Period

Current normative data for theCurrent normative data for the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II) are derived from 2 anonymous participant responses collected through TraitProfiler between 2026 and 2026. All response data are collected anonymously and are intended exclusively for educational, psychometric, and non-commercial research purposes.

Sources

Carlson, E. B., & Putnam, F. W. An update on the Dissociative Experiences Scale. Dissociation 6(1): 16-27 (1993).