Dearest milum, I have a feeling that your friend misunderstood his psychiatrist. What you said he described sounds like what I learned as dissociation.
Heaven knows, it is easy enough to misunderstand medical info., she said speaking from personal experience. For ex., I went around saying that a certain former med. made me cough like crazy, and that the former doctor had told me so. Yet I have since been told by two other doctors that that med. would not cause that symptom... Yet I am SURE that I was at the Dr.'s office when I was told that--so perhaps it was by a nurse...? And yet, casting back in my mind, I am still seeing and hearing the doctor telling me that (I remember feeling very angry that he tossed it out so casually...). See what I mean?