Plurality or plural is an identity used by those who believe they have multiple distinct consciousnesses, identities, or self-states in their body. Some of them also identify as tulpas whose spiritual practices often require intense concentration. There are plural communities active in a variety of online spaces including on blogging sites and instant messaging servers like Discord.
A related term "multiplicity" is used in a clinical psychology context and by some individuals who identify as plural to describe its associated phenomenology. In clinical research, plural identities are primarily associated with dissociative identity disorder (DID) or identity disturbance, even while some members of plural communities reject that suggestion that their experiences are inherently disordered and even report finding their identities and its associated experiences to be soothing.
The identity and its related vocabulary was first present in mailing lists of the 1980s,[1] while plural communities and their associated organizations emerged in greater abundance in 1990s online communities.[2] By 2001, online groups specifically 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] Plural communities continue to exist online through social media including blogging sites like LiveJournal, Tumblr,[4][5] and more recently, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube.[6][7] and Discord servers.[3] Certain research and cultural publications have connected the plural community to related online communities devoted to tulpamancy,[1][2][8] a term borrowed from Tibetan culture.[1]
Community members often identify as "systems "– multiple distinct identities or personalities in the same body. Those distinct identities may be called "headmates ", "systemmates", and sometimes "alters",[4][9][8] though some with plural identities consider terms like "alters" and "parts" 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] Some plural terminology is taken from queer spaces, for example, coming out of the closet.[10] There is also a documented overlap between transgender and plural identities; transgender headmates (different from the body's sex) are not uncommon.[2] There is also a considerable contingent of autistic people who 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, a system's inner world is often elaborate while exhibiting a kind of individuality that can change based on specific emotions or events. Systemhood for those self-reporting as "non-disordered" was typically described as being soothing while people with DID found it distressing.[10] Additionally, Christensen reports that most of those she interviewed said their headmates were aware of each other, some saying that headmates had even married or procreated new headmates.[3] Similarly, tulpamancers report visualising an inner world, commonly called a "wonderland" by those who practice.[11]
Mental health
Multiplicity has been proposed as an "extreme form of identity splitting" present in individuals with symptoms of DID.[12] Alternatively, recent clinical research has questioned whether identifying with multiplicity or plurality necessarily leads to distress.[13] 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"[10] or "sysmedical" approach to be gatekeeping or undermining their lived experience[14]. 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 who identify as endogenic (believing that their identity does not arise from trauma).[10]: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,[14] a development that dovetails with ongoing concern over links between social media and mental health, particularly in relation to TikTok communities.[15] Some professionals also worry that online spaces could sociogenically exacerbate adverse effects of DID.[14] 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.[14] The publication also warned that distinguishing genuine DID cases from malingered, factitious, or imitative DID, is difficult.[14] 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.[7] The extent to which adopting a plural identity can be regarded as a healthy way of coping is under-researched,[12] 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.[12] 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",[16] "[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."[17] On a further note, the related practices of tulpamancy is noted to have been used as a coping method during mental health crises by Elizabeth Schechter, Associate Professor of Philosphy at the University of Maryland.[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][11]
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