This article is about the concept and associated online subculture. For the recognized psychological disorder, see Dissociative identity disorder.
A request that this article title be changedto Plurality (identity) is under discussion. Please do not move this article until the discussion is closed.
The treblesand, a symbol in the Multiplicity subculture which represents manyness and harmony.
Multiplicity, also called plurality or polypsychism, is an online subculture of people identifying as having multiple people occupying one mind and body.[1][2][3] Each person may have their own thoughts, emotional reactions, preferences, behavior, memory and sense of self.[4][5][6][1] Being plural, or identifying as multiple people in one body, is often seen as inherently "disordered". However, being plural is not necessarily "disordered" because it is a violation of social norms. People generally do not consider themselves to be "disordered" because they are specifically plural.[3][7]
Plurality is not entire Multiplicity because it is explicitly for people who identify with it, while Multiplicity is for people who do not identify with “the plural identity”[8] More specifically, plurality is defined doxastically, while Multiplicity is defined phenomenologically.
Resources dedicated to multiplicity started to appear early in the internet's history.[9] According to a member of the community interviewed by Vice Magazine, the multiplicity subculture and related vocabulary originated in mailing lists of the 1980s.[3] Playing video games has also been cited as a context in which people engage with multiplicity.[10]
Vice suggests that experiences similar to multiplicity were also found in Haitian Vodou, spirit possession and the Tibetan practice of tulpamancy.[3] Nowadays, an online subculture dedicated to tulpamancy also exists, where practitioners willfully create and engage with tulpas which has been described as an online multiplicity space.[9]
Characteristics
Multiplicity communities exist online through social media blogging sites like LiveJournal, Tumblr,[11][12] and more recently, TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube.[2][13] However, the Culture on each of the platforms are different. Composing their members are "systems" of multiple distinct identities or personalities in the same body. Those identities are often called "headmates", "systemmates", and sometimes "alters". Typically, each headmate has a different Identity.[11][14][9] Some other jargon used within multiplicity communities includes:
"Fronter", the headmate currently controlling the body.
"Endogenic", an Umbrella term for more than one form of plurality that has non-traumagenic roots.[9]
"System Name", a name that incorporates every headmate in the system.
“Headmates” do not typically like to be called “alters” (a clinical term from DID) because they consider it dehumanizing.
According to Schechter and Christean, people in this community have a large overlap with transgender[a] and autistic people.
History
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (August 2025)
Christensen says that systems in this subculture have been moving to Person-first language. This indirectly caused plurality to be adopted by the wider subculture. Plurality was coined as a umbrella term for traumagenic and endogenic systems.[16]
Because of that, many online resources and communities were made for peoplep
2010s
The Tulpamancy Community formed. They are a known form of plurality at this point.[7]
Role as a support community
Participating in online multiplicity communities can remedy social isolation.[1][13] Ribáry et al. found that for participants, adopting a plural identity helps them cope with identity disorders and that discovering the notion of multiplicity and participating in related communities "is helpful and therapeutic".[1] 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]
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]
↑ Eriksen, Karen & Kress, Victoria E. (2005). "A Developmental, Constructivist Model for Ethical Assessment (Which Includes Diagnosis, of Course)". Beyond the DSM Story: Ethical Quandaries, Challenges, and Best Practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Page Publications. ISBN0-7619-3032-9
↑ Stephen E. Braude (1995), First Person Plural: Multiple Personality and the Philosophy of Mind, Rowman & Littlefield, p.86, ISBN9780847679966
↑ Carter, Rita (March 2008). Multiplicity: The New Science of Personality, Identity, and the Self. Little, Brown. ISBN9780316115384.
Further reading
Ian Hacking (2000). What's Normal?: Narratives of Mental & Emotional Disorders. Kent State University Press. pp.39–54. ISBN9780873386531.
Jennifer Radden (2011). "Multiple Selves". The Oxford Handbook of the Self. Oxford Handbooks Online. pp.547 et seq. ISBN9780199548019.
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