Multiplicity Myths

I wrote this collection of myths a few years ago, intending to create a multiplicity page on my website. That never got to be, but I still like this list. I have edited some parts where appropriate.

MYTH: Multiples are never aware that they have other selves and need a therapist to tell them so.
FACT: Some multiples are not aware that they have other selves, because the selves do not communicate. They may notice mysterious headaches or black-outs or find objects in their closets that they don’t remember buying. Then, when they decide to go into therapy, their selves come out to the therapist, who recognizes the symptoms of MPD. The idea that this case history is universal has been populated because it’s what happened with the famous multiples discussed in The Three Faces of Eve, Sybil, and When Rabbit Howls. However, it is not at at all uncommon for multiples – particularly those with at least some communication amongst their members – to discover selves on their own or even to have quite a descent awareness of the existence of a system within their minds without a therapist telling them so. Furthermore, with the increased public awareness of DID/MPD, it’s also not impossible for someone to suspect they’re multiple when they experience black-outs and headaches and find strange objects in their closets, because they know that these could be symptoms of DID.

MYTH: All multiple systems originate from one original person splitting apart, usually as a result of severe childhood trauma.
FACT: Some multiple systems – in fact, most known to the public – originated from one person splitting or creating other selves as a coping mechanism, usually in response to severe trauma or abuse in childhood. However, over the past several years there has been an increasing number of people claiming to be naturally multiple, having had multiple personalities for all of their lives that may or may not have been shaped by abuse (like any person can be shaped by abuse). Why is it that western culture allows for only one personality per body, actually?

MYTH: You can only really be multiple if you endured severe and repeated sexual or ritual abuse in childhood.
FACT: Aside from natural multiplicity unrelated to abuse, multiplicity may be a coping mechanism when dealing with traumatic experiences. It is, however, not the trauma or abuse itself that causes multiplicity: splitting is a coping mechanism when a child feels overwhelmed by their traumatic experiences. And why is it that only sexual or ritual abuse can be overwhelming enough to cause a child to create alters? Firstly, one person may be more prone to traumatization than another, which may even be genetically determined. You may consider people who are easily traumatized “overreactive”, but that does not change their situation. Secondly, while most people with severe dissociative symptoms are sexual abuse survivors, it was also found that neglected and/or physically abused adults are prone to dissociation.

MYTH: You either have only one personality or you have multiple, totally separate and independent personalities.
FACT: Multiplicity runs on a continuum with being singleton (having only one personality) on the one end and being several totally different and independent personalities on the other. In the middle of this continuum are people who do have other personalities, but whose personalities are not completely independent from one main person. This main person may for example run on the front representing the others, or he may always be present when the others are out. This experience is called mid-continuum or median – being “not one, not many”.

MYTH: All multiples have a “host” or “core personality”.
FACT: The word “host” comes from the DID/MPD community and refers to the person diagnosed with MPD, presumed to be the original person who “owns” the alters. Obviously, natural multiples do not have a host. Even when a person is mid-contnuum, it does not mean the main person at the front is a “host” to the other personalities. Also, some DID people claim that the original child died as a result of the abuse.

MYTH: All systems have an Inner Self Helper (ISH), who is typically wise and knows everything about the system.
FACT: The ISH was invented by Ralph B. Allison based on some practice and a lot of New Age’ish theory. Allison believes that a person essentially has two selves – the emotional self and the intellecutal self -, who integrate at birth. He assumes that these two selves can split as a result of life-threatening abuse before the age of seven. In this model, the emotional self becomes the original person and the intellectual self becomes the ISH, who then creates other alters to protect the original person. This, however, is not at all a proven concept. While many systems – though by far not all – do have wise members who can be considered inner self helpers based on their roles and qualities, these do not necessarily need to know everything about the system and they most certainly don’t need to be the first alters to be created. My own insider who is the closest to an ISH – including knowing everything about the system and all -, was the last to be created. Besides, I would not meet the criteria Allison presumes for this splitting at all

.

MYTH: All multiples need to integrate all of their parts in order to be functional.
FACT: Firstly, natural multiples of course can’t integrate themselves. Secondly, for survivor multiples, there are two options for recovery: one is integration and the other is cooperation, where the alters learn to share information and work together as a team. Thirdly, the belief that all multiples need to integrate has led therapists to pressure many systems into integration when they in fact weren’t ready for it – or didn’t even want to integrate. This causes unnecessary harm to the system and its members.

MYTH: Wanting to integrate is a sign of weakness.
FACT: As a revolte to the belief that all multiples need to integrate, some self-acclaimed “empowered multiples” have gone so far as to consider (or at least appear to consider) not wanting to integrate a sign of being healthier or more empowered than those who do want to integrate. I disagree to this idea: whether a system wants to integrate, should be the choice of the system members, and, when they agree that they want to become one, they should not be discouraged from this decision.

MYTH: Multiplicity is always a disorder.
FACT: Having multiple personalities is in itself not a disorder, especially when the system members cooperate fairly well and the system functions in daily life. The reason that therapists consider multiplicity in general to be a disorder is that healthy, functional multiples are most likely not going to seek therapy for their multiplicity. People usually enter therapy because of black-outs, flashbacks or for mental health problems related to their multiple personalities or trauma, not for the simple fact that they are many. In DSM-V, it is considered that an impairment in social/occupational functioning be required for a diagnosis of DID.

MYTH: People who have problems dealing with their multiplicity or who experience trauma-related symptoms, are weak.
FACT: While no-one will explicitly state this, it’s often implicitly presupposed by people claiming to be empowered multiples. Firstly, I do feel that these statements or assumptions are offensive and invalidating to people with trauma-related and dissociative disorders. Experiencing flashbacks, having angry alters or depression are not symptoms you choose; what you can choose is to get treatment for those. And sometimes you are in such an unstable state that you just can’t take responsibility for everything – people’s definition of empowerment. This responsibility is to be taken when possible, of course, and one should aim at reclaiming this ability, but considering this inability a sign of weakness will not get a person to be more accountable. Secondly, many multiple systems do take responsibility for their situations, but this includes seeking treatment for problems. Asking for help is also a form of taking responsibility.

MYTH: Dissociation and multiplicity are the same.
FACT: Dissociation and multiplicity may be related, as is the case for people with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Dissociation, however, is generally defined by the DSM-IV as a distrubance or an alteration in the normally integrative functions of identity, memory and/or consciousness. In DID, the disturbance occurs mainly in identity, but there are other forms of dissociation as well. Examples are Dissociative Amnesia (where a person does not remember a specific traumatic event but does feel distressed when confronted with colors, odors etc. related to it), Dissociative Fugue (travelling away from one’s environment with an inability to recall one’s past and the assumption of a new identity) and Dissociative Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. The other way around, people can be multiple without dissociating. Examples of this are most cases of natural multiplicity and, possibly, some people’s experiences with Inner Child work.

MYTH: Multiplicity is very rare.
FACT: Because trauma-related and dissociative disorders were not generally known, let alone studied, till sometime in the 1970s after the publication of Sybil, it is assumed that these disorders are rare. However, conservative estimates of the prevalence of DID are one in hundred – and a diagnosis of DDNOS (often combined with PTSD) is even more common. These estimates, of course, do not include natural multiples or those not seeking therapy.

MYTH: Multiplicity did not exist before the 1980s.
FACT: Multiplicity has always existed and has been kown for several centuries now. The reason why it wasn’t widely studied until the 1980s is partly because the publibaction of Sybil generated huge interest and partly because, until the later part of the 20th century, the effects of child abuse were not widely recognized. Given the fact that child abuse survivors now make up 97% of the DID population, it’s no surprise that these cases were overlooked before child abuse was taken seriously.

MYTH: Multiplicitiy does not really exist; it is a disease induced by hypnosis and unethical therapists making use of people’s suggestibility.
FACT: Because of some scandals with people incorrectly diagnosed with MPD and given false “recovered” memories by therapists’ continual suggestions and hypnosis, many people have come to doubt the possibility of memory repression, recovered memories and, as such, MPD as a whole, because it’s the disorder most commonly associated with recovered memories. However, memory repression is quite possible and many multiples’ recovered memories of childhood abuse have been confirmed. Furthermore, even if you doubt the reality of recovered memories, that does not mean that the whole concept of multiplicity is invalid.

MYTH: All multiples lose time when their other selves are out.
FACT: In order to be diagnosed with DID according to DSM-IV criteria, a person has to have an inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. This may include event amnesia (time loss), but identity amnesia, where the person “becomes” the alter, also counts. Furthermore, some multiples do not experience amnesia at all. These people may be diagnosed with DDNOS and are referred to as “co-conscious” multiples. Lastly, natural multiples and others who do not wish to be psychopathologized, are not going to be influenced by what the DSM-IV says about dissociative disorders.

MYTH: All multiples call themselves “we”.
FACT: Some multiples may start using the plural self-indicative after they’ve accepted their multiplicity or their diagnosis of DID. However, many do not use the plural pronoun when around people who don’t know they are multiple and, in fact, some feel the need to train themselves to say “we” after having said “I” for most of their lives.

MYTH: Multiples hear voices in their head.
FACT: Some multiples do not. They may see the other personalities or, sometimes, just experience “loud thoughts” or have the other person’s feelings.

MYTH: Multiples are always extremely intelligent.
FACT: Some are, just like some singletons are extremely intelligent. However, there is no evidence that multiples as a group are more intelligent than others. They may have more acquired skills cause different selves have pursued different interests and they may come across more open-minded cause they have such a diverse population amongst them – though individual system members may be quite close-minded -, but they do not necessarily have high IQs.

MYTH: Multiplicity is schizophrenia.
FACT: Multiple Personality Disorder has not been recognized as a separate disorder for a long time. Before MPD/DID was recognized in psychiatry, many people who would now be diagnosed as multiples were diagnosed with schizophrenia. A famous example would be Deborah Blau, the main character in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Hannah Green. In the 1940s, both the fact that psychosis was approached form a psychoanalytic perspective and the fact that subtle forms of multiplciity were not generally known, made for quite a good ground to build the idea that schizophrenics have a “split personality” upon. Nowadays, this belief is outdated: schizophrenia is a psychotic disorder not caused by trauma, which is organic in origin and has most lileky genetic components. People with schizophrenia who hear voices in their heads hallucinate (they think they hear voices that aren’t there); multiples who hear voices in their heads, do not (they hear voices inside their heads that they know come from within themselves). Also, schizophrenia cannot be treated with psychotherapy and multiple personality cannot be cured with antipsychotic meds.