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Multiplicity (subculture)

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This article is about the online subculture. For the psychological disorder, see Dissociative Identity Disorder. For multiplicity as a concept, see Multiplicity (psychology).

Multiplicity, also called plurality, is an online subculture of people having or using multiple personalities.[1][2][3] Multiplicity communities mostly exist through social media blogging platforms like TikTok.[3] Some multiplicity online spaces are support groups for related mental illness, like dissociative disorders. Due to their in-group culture, they also have been linked to iatrogenic effects like self-diagnosis of dissociative identity disorders and perpetuation of symptoms.[1][4]

Definition

The coinage multiplicity describes both:[3][5]

Some online multiplicity communities embrace both types of expression under the multiplicity label, while others are dedicated to those experiencing dissociative disorders.[1][4]

See also: Tulpamancy § Tulpamancers

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]

Vice suggests that aspects of the online multiplicity community were also found 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 entertain tulpas, a form of imaginary friend,[7] which has been described as an online multiplicity space.[6]

Characteristics

Multiplicity communities exist online through social media blogging sites like LiveJournal[8] and more recently, TikTok, Reddit and YouTube.[2][4] They are composed of individuals who identify as "systems" of multiple distinct personalities, often called "alters" which can have different names, ages, genders, sexualities, personalities from one another.[8][9][6] Other jargon used within multiplicity communities includes:

  • "Fronting", of the alter currently controlling the "system".[3]
  • "Switching", when an alter fronts in place of another one.[2]
  • "Headspace" or "inner world", the concept of a mental space in which alters interact together.[8][3]
  • "Singlet", referring to a person that does not experience plurality.[1][3][5]
  • "Endogenic", of plurality that has non-traumagenic roots.[6]

A common topic of discourse in online multiplicity communities, especially ones centered around dissociative identity disorder, is whether or not a medical condition or a medical diagnosis is required to be considered a "system".[3] In their 2017 study, Ribáry et al. wrote that some aspects of the online multiplicity community cannot be explained by the medical picture of dissociative identity disorder. While studying a sample of the online multiplicity community, he noted that alters exhibited continuity in behavior and sense of self, demonstrated good everyday functioning, and lacked the diagnostic criterion of amnesia, in particular while performing voluntary "switches".[1]

Psychology Today describes members' narratives of non-disorder plurality as "often not distressing or functionally impairing" and that it may be better characterized as a form of neurodiversity.[6]

Role as a support community

In their study on online multiplicity, Ribáry et al. found that for participants, "the common identity of 'being multiple' aids in the process of coping with the alterations of the personality" and that for them, "the discovery of the concept of multiplicity and the possibility of communicating with others was helpful and therapeutic".[1]

Accoring to neuropsychologist Aubry Bakker, for DID patients, participating in online multiplicity communities can remedy isolation and "having filmed moments can help fill gaps in memory and help individuals get in touch with their identities".[4]

Multiplicity influencers have received criticism for portraying dissociative identity disorders lightheartedly, subject to community response encouraging such content. About the "DID TikTok" community, the online magazine Input writes:[2]

On DID TikTok, the disorder often comes across like a lighthearted state of being, in stark contrast to the way it is spoken about by clinicians and other people who live with it: Each system presents a cast of colorful characters, often squabbling over the body that they share. On occasion, systems let down their guard and post about the emotional turmoil that comes with DID — but these videos are often not as popular.

Psychologist Naomi Torres-Mackie, head of research at The Mental Health Coalition, claims that multiplicity-related social media content caused an increase in self-diagnosis of related disorders. She states: "All of a sudden, all of my adolescent patients think that they have this, and they don't ... Folks start attaching clinical meaning and feeling like, 'I should be diagnosed with this. I need medication for this', when actually a lot of these experiences are normative and don't need to be pathologized or treated."[10]

In their 2017 study on online multiplicity communities, Ribáry et al. wrote about a reinforcing in-group effect within the online multiplicity subculture:[1]

On the one hand, the online community may prevent members seeking professional help, and on the other hand, individuals with disturbed but not dissociated identity problems also may internalize the group's beliefs and rules, further increasing the severity of their fragmentedness.

Faking and fakeclaiming

The magazines Psychology Today and Teen Vogue describe accusations of "faking" and "fakeclaiming" to be commonplace in online multiplicity communities. "Faking" refers to an individual intentionally attributing a medical condition like dissociative identity disorder or OSDD to a willfully exaggerated presentation of multiple personalities. "Fakeclaiming" refers to an accusation of "Faking".[4][6] Heather Hall, a psychiatrist on the board of directors for the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation, argues that such back-and-forth "faking" and "fakeclaiming" accusations have a gaslighting impact on members suffering from dissociative disorders, causing them to doubt their diagnosis.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Ribáry, Gergő; Lajtai, László; Demetrovics, Zsolt; Maraz, Aniko (2017-06-13). "Multiplicity: An Explorative Interview Study on Personal Experiences of People with Multiple Selves". Frontiers in Psychology. 8: 938. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00938. ISSN 1664-1078. PMC 5468408. PMID 28659840.
  2. ^ a b c d Lucas, Jessica. "Inside TikTok's booming dissociative identity disorder community". Input. Retrieved 2022-09-25.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Telfer, Tori (2015-05-11). "Are Multiple Personalities Always a Disorder?". Vice. Retrieved 2020-06-15.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Styx, Lo (2022-01-27). "Teens Are Using TikTok to Diagnose Themselves With Dissociative Identity Disorder". Teen Vogue. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  5. ^ a b Schechter, Elizabeth. "What we can learn about respect and identity from 'plurals'". Aeon. Retrieved 2022-09-24.
  6. ^ a b c d e f "Enacted Identities: Multiplicity, Plurality, and Tulpamancy | Psychology Today". www.psychologytoday.com. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  7. ^ Mikles, Natasha L.; Laycock, Joseph P. (2015). "Tracking the Tulpa: Exploring the "Tibetan" Origins of a Contemporary Paranormal Idea" (1): 87-. doi:10.1525/nr.2015.19.1.87. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  8. ^ a b c Riesman, Abraham (2019-03-29). "The Best Cartoonist You've Never Read Is Eight Different People". Vulture. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
  9. ^ Parry, Sarah; Eve, Zarah; Myers, Gemma (2022-07-21). "Exploring the Utility and Personal Relevance of Co-Produced Multiplicity Resources with Young People". Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma. 15 (2): 427–439. doi:10.1007/s40653-021-00377-7. ISSN 1936-1521. PMC 9120276. PMID 35600531.
  10. ^ "Teens are using TikTok to diagnose themselves with dissociative identity disorder". Teen Vogue. 2022-01-27. Retrieved 2022-03-23.

Further reading

  • Ian Hacking (2000). What's Normal?: Narratives of Mental & Emotional Disorders. Kent State University Press. pp. 39–54. ISBN 9780873386531.
  • Jennifer Radden (2011). "Multiple Selves". The Oxford Handbook of the Self. Oxford Handbooks Online. pp. 547 et seq. ISBN 9780199548019.
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