Abstract
Background and aims: Personality psychology research relies on the notion that humans have a single self that is the result of the individual's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that can be reliably described (i.e., through traits). People who identify themselves as “multiple” have a system of multiple or alternative, selves, that share the same physical body. This is the first study to explore the phenomenon of multiplicity by assessing the experiences of people who identify themselves as “multiple.”Methods: First, an Internet forum search was performed using the terms “multiplicity” and “multiple system.” Based on that search, people who identified themselves as multiple were contacted. Interviews were conducted by a consultant psychiatrist, which produced six case vignettes.Results: Multiplicity is discussed on Twitter, Tumblr, Google+ and several other personal websites, blogs, and forums maintained by multiples. According to the study's estimates, there are 200–300 individuals who participate in these forums and believe they are multiple. Based on the six interviews, it appears that multiples have several selves who are relatively independent of each other and constitute the personality's system. Each “resident person” or self, has their own unique behavioral pattern, which is triggered by different situations. However, multiples are a heterogeneous group in terms of their system organization, memory functions, and control over switching between selves.Conclusions: Multiplicity can be placed along a continuum between identity disturbance and dissociative identity disorder (DID), although most systems function relatively well in everyday life. Further research is needed to explore this phenomenon, especially in terms of the extent to which multiplicity can be regarded as a healthy way of coping.
Highlights
People usually have an alternating set of behaviors triggered by various social roles and different social events
The current study presented the cases of six people who consider themselves to be a multiple: a system of alternative personalities sharing the same physical body
Multiples use their unique terminology to refer to common experiences, for example, “system” (which is the term used to refer to themselves, i.e., a system of persons), “resident persons” (or “alters,” who are alternative personalities sharing the body), “fronting” (when one resident person takes control over the behavior in a particular moment or period of time) and “host” (the original personality, often the one who has been present from birth)
Summary
People usually have an alternating set of behaviors triggered by various social roles and different social events. The same person can be a mother, a friend, an employee, a committed vegetarian, a frustrated public transport user and many other identities, often at the same time These roles and behaviors accumulate into one unified self. Multiplicity self and that they possess a multiple number of different selves who are all important and take turns controlling the behavior. These “selves” each have their own thoughts, desires, interests, and histories. People who identify themselves as “multiple” have a system of multiple or alternative, selves, that share the same physical body This is the first study to explore the phenomenon of multiplicity by assessing the experiences of people who identify themselves as “multiple.”
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