This article is about the concept and associated online subculture. For the recognized psychological disorder, see
Dissociative identity disorder.
Multiplicity, also called plurality or polypsychism, is an
online subculture of people identifying as having or using multiple
personalities,[1][2][3] or as having multiple people occupying one mind and body. Multiplicity communities mostly exist online through social media platforms.[3]
Definition
The coinage multiplicity describes people displaying or experiencing multiple personalities, selves, or identities in one mind and body, each with their own thoughts, emotional reactions, preferences, behavior, memory and sense of self.[4][5][6][7][8][9][1][excessive citations]
Resources dedicated to multiplicity started to appear early in the internet's history.[10] 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.[11]
Vice suggests that aspects of the online multiplicity community 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.[10]
Characteristics
Multiplicity communities exist online through social media blogging sites like
LiveJournal,
Tumblr,[12][13] and more recently,
TikTok,
Reddit, and
YouTube.[2][14] 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", and can have different names, ages, genders, sexualities, and personalities from one another.[12][15][10] Some other
jargon used within multiplicity communities includes:
"Fronter", the headmate currently controlling the body.
"Endogenic", a form of plurality that has non-traumagenic roots.[10]
Role as a support community
Participating in online multiplicity communities can remedy social isolation.[1][14] 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"[17]), "Denying 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."[18]
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".[19]
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.[20] 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.[21]
^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.