Plurality or plural is an identity used by those who believe they have multiple distinct consciousnesses, identities, or self-states in their body. There are plural communities active in a variety of online spaces including on blogging sites and instant messaging servers such as Discord. The plural community also includes some who practice tulpamancy as part of the identity.
The related term "multiplicity" is used within clinical psychology and by some plural people to describe the experience of being multiple. In clinical research, multiplicity is typically associated with dissociative identity disorder (DID) or identity disturbance, even while some members of plural communities reject the suggestion that their experiences are inherently disordered and even report finding their identities and associated experiences to be soothing.
The identity and its related vocabulary was first present in mailing lists of the 1980s,[1] while in the 1990s, online plural communities and their associated organizations emerged in greater abundance.[2] By 2001, online communities 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] A year later, the community was introduced to two new terms (endogenic and traumagenic) during a presentation by a plural person in the Plural Positivity World Conference.[4]:33 Some in the plural community practice tulpamancy (borrowed from Tibetan culture[1]); simularities between that practice and the experience of multiplicity are a major conversation point in plural communities.[1][2][5] Plural communities continue to exist online through social media including blogging sites such as LiveJournal, Tumblr,[6][7] and more recently, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube,[8][9] and Discord servers.[3]
Community members often identify as "systems "– multiple distinct identities or personalities in the same body. Those distinct identities may be called "headmates " or "systemmates" as well as terms that some plural people consider to be problematic such as "alters" or "parts".[6][10][5][10][2] Plural systems may describe a dominant or controlling headmate as "fronting " or, in cases when there is more than one, "co-fronting ".[11][12] Headmates that identify as animals or other non-human entities may also identify as "otherkin", a separate but overlapping community.[2]
Certain plural terminology is taken from queer spaces, for example, coming out of the closet.[11] There is also a documented overlap between transgender and plural identities; transgender headmates (different from the body's sex) are not uncommon.[2] A somewhat considerable contingent of autistic people identify as plural which, according to Christensen, may possibly be 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. For example, plurals who described themselves as "non-disordered" typically found systemhood to be soothing while those with DID typically found it to be distressing. Also commonly reported was that a system's inner world exhibited elaborate individualities that changed based on specific emotions or events.[11] A different study on tulpamancers reported that they also visualised an inner world, commonly calling it a "wonderland".[13] Most of the systems interviewed in two separate studies reported that their headmates were aware of and communicated with each other.[12][3] Christensen provided accounts of headmates marrying or procreating new headmates.[3]
Mental health
Multiplicity has been proposed as an "extreme form of identity splitting" present in individuals with symptoms of DID.[14] A study by Turrel et al. reported that many they interviewed with plural identities said they felt disconnected from their body in experiences that matched dysmorphia and gender dysphoria, while additional stigma derived from popular media which often portrays those with plural identities as dangerous.[12] Alternatively, recent clinical research has questioned whether identifying with multiplicity or plurality necessarily leads to distress.[15] Indeed, some people with plural identities do not agree with, or seek, a DID diagnosis, instead rejecting the suggestion that there is anything inherently pathological about their experiences.[1] Clinical scrutiny of plural social media content has generated backlash from some plural community members who view what they call the "system medicalist"[11] or "sysmedical" approach to be gatekeeping or undermining their lived experience.[16] By contrast, a different, largely DID-diagnosed sub-group within the plural community has been known to "call out" others they believe to be fabricating their experience of plurality. This sometimes includes arguing that the plural community should exclude those who are undiagnosed or identify as endogenic (believing that their identity does not arise from trauma).[11]:167-168
A rise in self-diagnosed DID cases has coincided with a growing popularity of social media content relating to DID and plural identities,[16] a development that dovetails with ongoing concern over links between social media and mental health, particularly in relation to TikTok communities.[17] Some professionals also worry that online spaces could sociogenically exacerbate adverse effects of DID.[16] 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.[16] The publication also warned that distinguishing genuine DID cases from malingered, factitious, or imitative DID, is difficult.[16] On the other hand, most members of the plural community who identify specifically as endogenic systems reject the DID label and do not claim the diagnosis.[2]:6
Other reports suggest that participation in plural communities might remedy some aspects of social isolation arising from DID.[9] 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] "[d]enying the existence of separate experiences can be harmful and may not facilitate healing. Acknowledging and respecting the multiplicity-plurality of individuals with DID is essential for promoting understanding, acceptance, and support."[19] The extent to which adopting a plural identity can be regarded as a healthy way of coping is under-researched, 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.[14] On a further note, Elizabeth Schechter, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland, reported that the related practice of tulpamancy was used as a coping method during some practitioners' mental health crises.[2] She along with religious studies PhD student Elizabeth Hale at UC Santa Barbara equated such practices with praying, noting that they could potentially impute therapeutic benefits for mental health and wellbeing.[2][13]
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