CW: mentions of syscourse,
abuse, fusion & integration
Plurality is a broad umbrella term to describe having more than one person in one body.
Plurality can be viewed using a medical, natural, intentional, cultural, or spiritual lens.
There is not just one way to be plural - just as there is not just one way to be human.
In modern medicine, plurality is thought to be an unusual trauma disorder, but in other parts of the world, plurality is sometimes considered positive, neutral, or a normal human variation. There could be many examples of plurality that are undocumented due to colonization, but the examples below show that plurality has existed long before it was labelled as a disorder. As LB Lee puts it: "the idea that plurality was invented by (or belongs to) white medical personnel and the people they treat needs to be broken".1
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The Tagbanwa people in the Philippines believe in six souls with specific delegations.2
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Some Chinese cultures believe in two souls (hun & po) while Taoism discusses seven hun & three po.3
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Ancient Estonians had a complex system of self including non-human parts like "fairy".4
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There is an ancient Tibetan & Indian technique of creating autonomous parts through mental practices.5
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In Nigeria, ogbanje (of the Igbo people) and abiku (of the Yoruba people) are those who "cycle rapidly and repeatedly through birth and death".6
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Kabbalistic Jews say an extra soul is gained during Shabbat to intensify their experience.7
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Reincarnation, past lives, or other spiritual beliefs could be considered forms of plurality.
A system's plurality may be influenced by multiple forms of plurality. For example, the protagonist of Akwaeke Emezi's book Freshwater is plural as she is an ogbanje in the Igbo culture, and also because of the trauma she experienced. While systems should be able to access medical support, they shouldn't be forced to pathologize their plurality in order to treat the trauma.
The earliest plurals documented in medicine were in the early 1800s,1 although some cases of "possession" in the 1500s were later interpreted as plurality.8 Before the 1950s, there were equal numbers of plural men and women documented, but the updated diagnosis of hysterical neurosis contributed to the idea that plurality is “a white woman’s affliction”.1 The stigmatization of plurality is largely due to extreme media portrayals like Sybil, The Three Faces of Eve, and The Minds of Billy Milligan.1 These books & movies framed plurals as dangerous, and several of the systems' true stories were allegedly twisted by the directors.1
There was a spike in diagnoses (perhaps due to the broad & vague criteria) when the 1980 DSM-III came out with multiple personality disorder - likely coinciding with a wave of feminism and abuse awareness.9 In the 1994 DSM-IV, MPD was renamed dissociative identity disorder to "reflect a better understanding of the condition".10 However, the psychiatrist in charge renamed it this because he believed that MPD was an iatrogenic fad and he wanted to undermine its legitimacy - something he still maintained 20 years later.11
Psychologist van der Hart's Theory of Structural Dissociation is one theory that explains DID.12 The ToSD theorizes that we're born with separate states that integrate by age 9, and if this process is interrupted by trauma before age 9, then multiplicity could occur.12 Fusion (becoming singular) is a key part of van der Hart's treatment and his therapists were trained to "not engage with dissociative parts".13 In 2019, van der Hart allegedly lost his license when his patient disclosed that he abused her and kept her in therapy for 21 years.14 While the ToSD is popular, some plurals have poked holes in it and instead align with a variety of medical theories. Fusion and/or integration can be very positive for a system, but it is important to note that fusion is not the only way to receive treatment.
In 2013, Other Specified Dissociative Disorder was added to the DSM-V, which showed that not all medical systems have DID.15 OSDD-1a systems have less distinction between systemmates, and OSDD-1b systems have little or no amnesia between systemmates.15 Depending on the country, 0.4 - 1.5% of the general population have DID specifically,16 but this number is likely larger when considering OSDD, undiagnosed, or non-medical systems. Many professionals don't know what plurality is, misdiagnose, or refuse to see you. Non-white systems face even greater barriers and have poor representation in DID research,17 even though one study sampling undergraduates (~40% racial minorities) found that Black and Asian participants reported "significantly higher rates of dissociation" than white participants.18
Kerry of Plures House says, "there is often a misconception that there are only a few traumatising events that qualify [to cause DID]", but trauma can be many less obvious things and affects everyone differently.19 We know that imagination, dissociation, attachment, and supports are a few factors that influence trauma & plurality.15 But Kerry asks, "are there other factors that may allow people to continue to have separate senses of self?".19 Speaking anecdotally, we've observed a connection between being a system, being autistic, and being transgender. While more research needs to be done, the medical model and its ties to racism, sexism, and exclusion cannot be the only source we look to when learning more about plurality.
In 1989, a newsletter called Many Voices was created to feature the writing, poetry, art, and resources submitted by plurals.20 Through MV, there was documentation of plurals who had no trauma, had only child headmates, had non-human headmates, or had romantic relationships between headmates.9 This is significant because these systems' experiences existed outside of the DSM, outside of the medical community - and they were still talked about and respected.
The art below is from April 2011.
Within the plural community, there is gatekeeping & exclusion over who exactly qualifies as plural.22 Some systems don't fit the diagnostic criteria, some don't like the implication of "brokenness", and some with more unusual plurality are made to feel "not plural enough".21, 22 One user wondered if "plurality & dissociation are actually two different things" - trauma & PTSD is the disorder - not plurality itself.21 This is the idea of functional multiplicity: "plurality is a functional [...] state of being: MPD [DID] is a nonfunctional disorder".21 From this perspective, plurality could be considered a neurodivergence instead of an illness. This is why not all systems consider themselves to have DID/OSDD.
Plural activism is a movement to dismantle ableism & sanism for systems. This could involve...
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spreading awareness so that plurality is commonly discussed & professionals like doctors, teachers, therapists, etc., are educated on plurality
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fighting discriminatory policy for plurals in education, healthcare, psychiatric wards, in the workplace, the prison system, and in adoption & organ donation processes23
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recognizing & destabilizing the role that colonization, racism, & white privilege play in understanding, treating, and supporting plurals
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making space in society for the whole system - not just one systemmate
1. Lee, LB. (2020, May 28). Quick'n'Dirty Plural History... Part 1 (1811-1980ish). Website. https://lb-lee.dreamwidth.org/1111069.html
2. Tan, Michael L. (2008). Revisiting Usog, Pasma, Kulam. University of the Philippines Press. ISBN 9789715425704.
3. Wudang Arts. (2020, May 29). Understanding the Human Soul. Daoist Arts. Website. https://daoistgate.com/understanding-the-human-soul/
4. Kulmar, Tarmo. (1997). Conceptions of soul in old-Estonian religion. http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol4/hing.htm
5. Mikles, Natasha L.; Laycock, Joseph P. (6 August 2015). "Tracking the Tulpa: Exploring the "Tibetan" Origins of a Contemporary Paranormal Idea". Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions. 19(1): 87–97, doi:10.1525/nr.2015.19.1.87.
6. Ilechukwu, Sunday T. (May 2007). “Ogbanje/Abikuand Cultural Conceptualizations of Psychopathology in Nigeria.” Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 10(3): 239–255, doi:10.1080/13694670600621795. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/229053521_Ogbanjeabiku_and_cultural_conceptualizations_of_psychopathology_in_Nigeria
7. Luria, R. (2020). The Additional Shabbat Soul. Chabad.org. Website. https://www.chabad.org/kabbalah/article_cdo/aid/380636/jewish/The-Additional-Shabbat-Soul.htm
8. Hart, Onno & Lierens, R & Goodwin, J. (1996). Jeanne Fery: A sixteenth-century case of dissociative identity disorder. The Journal of psychohistory. 24. 18-35.
9. Lee, LB. (2020, June 30). Quick'n'Dirty Plural History. Part 2: The Memory Wars. Website. https://lb-lee.dreamwidth.org/1116190.html
10. Psychology Today. (2019, February 22). Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personality Disorder). Website. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/conditions/dissociative-identity-disorder-multiple-personality-disorder#:~:text=DID%20was%20called%20multiple%20personality,or%20growth%20of%20separate%20personalities
11. Frances, A. J. (2014, January 30). Multiple Personality: Mental Disorder, Myth, or Metaphor?. Website. https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/saving-normal/201401/multiple-personality-mental-disorder-myth-or-metaphor
12. Hart, O., Nijenhuis, E. R. S., & Steele, K. (2006). The haunted self: Structural dissociation and the treatment of chronic traumatization. New York: W.W. Norton.
13. The Stronghold System. [power to the plurals]. (2020, June 16). The truth: Why the writer of Structural Dissociation Theory lost his license - Onno van der Hart [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJxkORKQncQ&ab_channel=powertotheplurals
14. Clark, Sarah, The Stronghold System. (2019). Why the theory of structural dissociation is ableist. Power to the Plurals. https://powertotheplurals.com/why-the-theory-of-structural-dissociation-is-ableist/
15. Traumadissociation.com. (2021, January 18). Other Specified Dissociative Disorder and DDNOS. Dissociative Disorders. Website. http://traumadissociation.com/osdd
16. Brand, B. L., Sar, V., Stavropoulos, P., Krüger, C., Korzekwa, M., Martínez-Taboas, A., & Middleton, W. (2016). Separating Fact from Fiction: An Empirical Examination of Six Myths About Dissociative Identity Disorder. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 24(4), 257–270. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000100, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4959824/
17. Fante-Coleman, Tiyondah, and Fatimah Jackson-Best. (2020). “Barriers and Facilitators to Accessing Mental Healthcare in Canada for Black Youth: A Scoping Review.” Adolescent Research Review, 5(2), 115–136., doi:10.1007/s40894-020-00133-2, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40894-020-00133-2.
18. Douglas, A. N. (2009). Racial and ethnic differences in dissociation: an examination of the dissociative experiences scale in a nonclinical population. Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, 10(1), 24-37. doi: 10.1080/15299730802488452.
19. Dawkins, Kerry, Plures House. (2017). Three problems with Medical-Model-Only Thinking. Ex Uno Plures. http://www.exunoplures.org/main/articles/three-problems/
20. Wasnak, Lynn. (2015). Many Voices. Website. http://manyvoicespress.org/index.html
21. Lee, LB. (2020, June 30). Quick'n'Dirty Plural History. Part 3: Usenet and its spin-offs and Soulbonders. Website. https://lb-lee.dreamwidth.org/1120824.html
22. Lee, LB. (2020, August 31). Quick'n'Dirty Plural History. Part 4 (LJ, the Genic Slapfight, and THE END!). Website. https://lb-lee.dreamwidth.org/1129216.html
23. The Rings System. [@TheRingsSystem]. (2020, March 1). We are Plural whenever a system is treated subhumanly, told they don't exist, is forcibly hospitalized or seen as a threat or denied care or blocked from adopting children or given extended prison sentences or taken off the organ donation waitlist for being who they are. [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/TheRingsSystem/status/1234189696164651008