Plurality (identity)

Plurality, also called polypsychism,^[1] is a collective identity of those who believe they have multiple distinct consciousnesses, identities, or self-states in their body. "Plurality" is typically used by those who view their experience as a form of identity, while "multiplicity" is used clinically as well as by some individuals who identify with a plural identity to describe its associated phenomenology. Existing clinical research primarily associates multiplicity with identity disturbance and dissociative identity disorder (DID), while "plural" communities often reject that their experiences are inherently disordered.

Plurality is an umbrella term for which specific identities may include:^[2]

• Someone who identifies as a "system" that is plural
• People with psychological conditions like dissociative identity disorder
• Tulpas, identities associated with certain spiritual practices generally requiring intense concentration
• Walk-ins, a kind of spiritual possession^[3]

Origins and characteristics

See also: Tulpamancy § Tulpamancers, Dissociative identity disorder § History, and Hearing Voices Network

Discussion groups dedicated to plurality started to appear early in the internet's history.^[4] The plurality identity and related vocabulary originated first in mailing lists of the 1980s,^[3] while plurality communities and their associated organizing emerged in greater abundance in the 1990s.^[5] Consensus to use plurality as an umbrella term emerged in 2018 when more than 23,000 votes were cast across different support groups and platforms in support of the term. According to licensed counselor, Emily Christensen, this "was, in itself, a historic moment for Plurals as they organized together in a way they never have previously".^[6]

Plural communities exist online through social media blogging sites like LiveJournal, Tumblr,^[7][8] and more recently, TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube.^[9][10] Community members often identify as "systems" of multiple distinct identities or personalities in the same body. Those distinct identities may be called "headmates", "systemmates", and sometimes "alters",^[7][11][4] though some with plural identities consider terms like "parts" and "alters" to be problematic since the words can imply they are not full people.^[11][5] According to many identifying with plurality, headmates are generally aware of each other, some going as far as saying that headmates married or procreated new headmates within the system.^[6] Some headmates may identify as animal or other non-human entities,^[6] also known as being otherkin.^[12]

In a Vice Magazine piece, the community members' multiplicity experiences are compared to ones from Haitian Vodou, spirit possession and the Tibetan practice of tulpamancy.^[3] Nowadays, an identity dedicated entirely to tulpamancy also exists, where practitioners willfully create and engage with tulpas which has been described as an online plurality space.^[4] There is a documented overlap between transgender and plural identities; transgender headmates (different from the body's sex) are not uncommon.^[5] According to Christensen, an overlap between plural identities and autistic people may be due in part to neurodivergency being a traumatising state in a neurotypically dominant society.^[6]

Mental health

Being plural, or identifying as multiple people in one body, has generally been identified within the context of mental health as being inherently disordered along the lines of DID or Identity disturbance^[13]. However, recent clinical research has questioned whether identifying with multiplicity or plurality necessarily leads to distress.^[14] Indeed, some people with plural identities do not agree with, or seek, a DID diagnosis, instead rejecting that there is anything inherently pathological about their experiences.^[3] An increased but limited^[13] clinical scrutiny of plurality social media content has also generated backlash from plural communities who view what they call the "sysmedicalist" approach to be gatekeeping or undermining their lived experience.^[15]

Even so, a recent rise in self-diagnosed DID cases has coincided with growing popularity of social media content relating to DID and plural identities,^[15] a connection that dovetails with ongoing concern over links between social media and mental health (particularly in relation to TikTok communities)^[16] with some professionals worrying that online spaces could sociogenically exacerbate adverse effects of DID.^[15] In the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, Salter et al. hypothesized that the rise in the 2020s of social media self-diagnoses was the result of multiple intersecting factors including undiagnosed neurodevelopmental issues, social isolation, and hardships associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing a parallel to the significant increase in tic-like presentations to Tourette syndrome clinics during this period.^[15]

A sub-group within plurality who are generally DID-diagnosed will call out "fake claim" people who they think are faking plural identity experiences. Some DID-diagnosed people argue that the community should exclude those who are "endogenic" (which is to say, have plural identities that do not arise from trauma) from having a plural identity.^[17]:167-168 While most people who claim to be an "endogenic system" do not claim to have DID,^[5]:6 distinguishing genuine DID cases from malingered, factitious, or imitative DID, is difficult.^[15]

Participation in plural communities might remedy some aspects of social isolation arising from DID.^[10] The extent to which adopting a plural identity can be regarded as a healthy way of coping is under-researched,^[13] though Ribáry et al. noted that all interviewees in a 2017 study reported that discovering the notion of plurality and participating in related communities was "helpful and therapeutic" to them.^[13] According to The Plural Association (a Netherlands-based nonprofit founded to "empower Plurals, no matter the words or labels they use to define their unique and individual experiences"),^[18] "Denying the existence of separate experiences can be harmful and may not facilitate healing. Acknowledging and respecting the multiplicity-plurality of individuals with DID [Dissociative Identity Disorder] is essential for promoting understanding, acceptance, and support."^[19]

As a personality style

In personality research, the term plurality can also refer to personality style defined as "an individual's relatively consistent inclinations and preferences across contexts".^{[20][page needed]}

Stephen E. Braude and Rita Carter use a different definition of personality style, defining "personality style" as "personality" and proposing that a person may have multiple selves and not have any relatively consistent inclinations and preferences in personality. This may happen as an adaptation to a change of environment and role within a person's life and may be consciously adopted or encouraged, in a similar way to acting or role-playing.^[21] For example, a woman may adopt a kind, nurturing personality when dealing with her children but change to a more aggressive, forceful personality when going to work as a high-flying executive as her responsibilities change.^[22]

Glossary

Co-fronting

when two or more headmates are fronting simultaneously.^[17]:14

Endogenic

forms of plurality that have non-traumagenic roots.^[4]

Fronter

the headmate that currently controls the body.^[3]

Fronting

the act of controlling the body.^[3]

Headspace

Also known as a Inner World, the concept of a mental space in which headmates interact together.^[7][3]

Multiplicity

a phenomenologically defined version of plurality.^[19]

Singlet

a person that does not experience plurality.^[13][3][2]

Switching

when the fronter becomes a different headmate.^[9]

System name

a name that represents the system (or plural person) as a whole.^[17]:14

Traumagenic

forms of plurality caused by or rooted in psychological trauma.^[4]

See also

• Demonic possession § Medicine and psychology – Purported control of a human body by spirits, ghosts, demons, or godsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Hypostatic model of personality – View that people present themselves in different aspects
• Personality style – Psychological characteristics of an individualPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Post-traumatic stress disorder – Mental disorder associated with trauma
• Social media and mental health – Mental health effects of using digital mediaPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Subpersonality – Personality mode allowing a person to cope with psychosocial situations