Plurality or plural is an identity used by those who believe they have multiple distinct consciousnesses, identities, or self-states in their body. The related term "multiplicity" is used in a clinical psychology context, as well as by some individuals who identify as plural, to describe its associated phenomenology. In clinical research, it is primarily associated with dissociative identity disorder (DID) or identity disturbance while some members of plural communities reject the conceit their experiences are inherently disordered.
Some who identify with being plural may have diagnosed psychological conditions like dissociative identity disorder. Some others may also identify as tulpas, which are identities associated with certain spiritual practices generally requiring intense concentration.
The plural identity and related vocabulary originated first in mailing lists of the 1980s,[1] while plural communities and their associated organizing emerged in greater abundance in the 1990s.[2] By 2001, online groups dedicated to plurality started to appear.[3] 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".[3]
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.[1] Nowadays, an identity dedicated entirely to tulpamancy also exists, where practitioners willfully create and engage with tulpas which has been described as an online plural space.[4]
Plural communities exist online through social media blogging sites like LiveJournal, Tumblr,[5][6] and more recently, TikTok, Reddit, and YouTube.[7][8] 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",[5][9][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.[9][2] Some headmates may identify as animals or other non-human entities, also known as being otherkin.[2] There is a documented overlap between transgender and plural identities; transgender headmates (different from the body's sex) are not uncommon.[2] There are autistic people who identify as plural, proposed by Christensen possibly partially due to neurodivergency being traumatising in a neurotypically dominant society.[3]
According to a doctoral thesis written by a Manchester Metropolitan University student, "systemhood" seems to have certain identifiable commonalities.[10] Christensen reported that commonly a system's headmates are generally aware of each other, with some saying headmates married or procreated new headmates.[3]
Mental health
Multiplicity has been proposed as an "extreme form of identity splitting" present in individuals with symptoms of DID.[11] Alternatively, recent clinical research has questioned whether identifying with multiplicity or plurality necessarily leads to distress.[12] 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.[1] Certain clinical scrutiny of plural social media content has also generated online backlash from plural communities who view what they call the "sysmedicalist"[10] approach to be gatekeeping or undermining their lived experience[13] not dissimilar to transmedicalism.[2]
A recent rise in self-diagnosed DID cases has coincided with growing popularity of social media content relating to DID and plural identities,[13] a connection that dovetails with ongoing concern over links between social media and mental health (particularly in relation to TikTok communities)[14] with some professionals worrying that online spaces could sociogenically exacerbate adverse effects of DID.[13] 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.[13]
A sub-group within online spaces who are generally DID-diagnosed will call out or "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.[10]:167-168 While most people who claim that they are not a traumagenicsystem say they do not have DID,[2]:6 distinguishing genuine DID cases from malingered, factitious, or imitative DID, is difficult.[13]
Participation in plural communities might remedy some aspects of social isolation arising from DID.[8] The extent to which adopting a plural identity can be regarded as a healthy way of coping is under-researched,[11] 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.[11] 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"),[15] "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."[16]
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".[17][pageneeded]
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.[18] 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.[19]
↑ 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.
↑ Braude, Stephen E. (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.
Hacking, Ian (2000). What's Normal?: Narratives of Mental & Emotional Disorders. Kent State University Press. pp.39–54. ISBN9780873386531.
Radden, Jennifer (2011). "Multiple Selves". The Oxford Handbook of the Self. Oxford Handbooks Online. pp.547 et seq. ISBN9780199548019.
Rowan, John, ed. (1999). The plural self: multiplicity in everyday life. London: Sage Publ. p.2. ISBN978-0-7619-6076-8.
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