An individual having sudden and temporary fluctuation of consciousness that blots out painful experience is showing signs of :

An individual having sudden and temporary fluctuation of consciousness that blots out painful experience is showing signs of : Correct Answer Dissociative Disorder

Psychological disorders: Most definitions of abnormality have certain common features, often called the ‘four Ds’: deviance, distress, dysfunction, and danger. That is, psychological disorders are deviant (different, extreme, unusual, even bizarre), distressing (unpleasant and upsetting to the person and to others), dysfunctional (interfering with the person’s ability to carry out daily activities in a constructive way), and possibly dangerous (to the person or to others). 

Psychological Disorders are:

Panic Disorder: 

• It is a type of anxiety disorder, which consists of recurrent anxiety attacks in which the person experiences intense terror.
• A panic attack denotes an abrupt surge of intense anxiety rising to a peak when thoughts of particular stimuli are present. Such thoughts occur in an unpredictable manner.
• The clinical features include shortness of breath, dizziness, trembling, palpitations, choking, nausea, chest pain or discomfort, fear of going crazy, losing control or dying

Mood Disorder:

• Mood disorders are characterised by disturbances in mood or prolonged emotional state.
• The most common mood disorder is depression, which covers a variety of negative moods and behavioural changes. Depression can refer to a symptom or a disorder.
• In day-to-day life, we often use the term depression to refer to normal feelings after a significant loss, such as the break-up of a relationship, or the failure to attain a significant goal.
• The main types of mood disorders include
  1. depressive disorder:
     • ​​A major depressive disorder is defined as a period of depressed mood and/or loss of interest or pleasure in most activities, together with other symptoms which may include a change in body weight, constant sleep problems, tiredness, inability to think clearly, agitation, greatly slowed behaviour, and thoughts of death and suicide.
     • Other symptoms include excessive guilt or feelings of worthlessness.
  2. mania: 
     • ​​People suffering from mania become euphoric (‘high’), extremely active, excessively talkative, and easily distractible.
     • Manic episodes rarely appear by themselves; they usually alternate with depression. 
  3. bipolar mood disorder:
     • ​​A mood disorder, in which both mania and depression are alternately present, is sometimes interrupted by periods of normal mood. This is known as a bipolar mood disorder.
     • Bipolar mood disorders were earlier referred to as manic-depressive disorders.
     • Among the mood disorders, the lifetime risk of a suicide attempt is highest in case of bipolar mood disorders.
     • Several risk factors in addition to the mental health status of a person predict the likelihood of suicide. These include age, gender, ethnicity, or race and recent occurrence of serious life events.

Conversion Disorder:

• The person suffers from a loss or impairment of motor or sensory function (e.g., paralysis, blindness, etc.) that has no physical cause but maybe a response to stress and psychological problems. 
• The symptoms of conversion disorders are the reported loss of part or all of some basic body functions.
• Paralysis, blindness, deafness and difficulty in walking are generally among the symptoms reported.

Dissociative Disorder:

• Dissociation can be viewed as severance of the connections between ideas and emotions.
• Dissociation involves feelings of unreality, estrangement, depersonalisation, and sometimes a loss or shift of identity.
• Sudden temporary alterations of consciousness that blot out painful experiences are a defining characteristic of dissociative disorders.
• Four conditions are included in this group: dissociative amnesia, dissociative fugue, dissociative identity disorder, and depersonalisation.

Hence, An individual having sudden and temporary fluctuation of consciousness that blots out painful experience is showing signs of dissociative disorder.