#or whatever the plural 'coiner' used

[imjustaf444keriguess]

relaly late on this post but i dont care

do you know why people use the term "sysmed"? its because some people medicalize system experiences, and claim that plurality and systemhood is only a medical thing.

me saying "systems who dont know it yet can use this to further their denial due to how well the definitions map to system experiences and you should know that as the creator and should maybe rewrite it if they aren't "true" plural experiences and are just the way it "seems" to be" to the creator of the label is not the same thing as what sysmeds say.

it's me trying to explain that i think the label they're intending to create and the label they created are different, and their definitions sound a lot just like plural experiences, and that it CAN be used by systems in denial.

not all people who will ever use the term polymind or relate to it will identify as plural. they might be on the midcontinuum of multiplicity experiences, but they do not and never have to use the term system and plural.

this is different than saying that any plural or system experiences are only experienced through the lens of a disorder, or that polymindedness can't exist outside of something medicalized(ish) like IFS or disordered like DID/OSDD.

i apologize to spectral pup if any of my posts sounded like i was trying to force the label of plural onto polymindedness or claiming it wasn't real. my "it could be used by systems in denial" was a throwaway comment when i wrote it. it was not meant to be the primary way to view the experience. i think it closely resembles IFS but teeters with some of the definitions closer to plural experiences, and where the line is drawn between "plural" and 'not plural" is going to end up being up to each person and their experiences and if they have trauma or switch or whatever.

we should keep in mind that there are systems and plurals out there that don't switch, that don't get amnesia or have memory issues or have great big dissociative barriers between each other.

and that plural, and system, and all the other words are just words to describe said experiences and the important bit is the experience itself, not if you call it "twenty nine dogs in a trench coat" or "endogenic sleepgenic spiritual walk in plurality" or "my mind shattered into 13 pieces and im survivetraumashatter polymind now" or "highly extreme complex DIDOSDD trauma-based system" or whatever.

i think its silly to insist that it's "better than endogenic plurality / systemhood" because if its something separate then its not going to fit as a label for endogenic plurals and endogenic systems, but comparing me saying "yeah currently the definitions sound a lot less like IFS at some points and a lot more like direct system experiences and sounds like something someone may use to identify with instead of using system because they are scared or in denial" to people who say ALL plurality has to be disordered and has to be a medical issue is wild.

this is getting ranty and very disorganized (i am hungry and grumpy but still posting because i want to) but i continue. the experience of being polyminded but not plural is real. you can use polyminded terms while also being "technically" plural or a system. you can make up your own terms. there's ten million alternatives out there. do whatever you want to forever. you are the experiencer of your brain and you know your own experience best and you can put labels on those experiences in whatever which way you'd like at the end of the day.

if you think you have trauma, even if its "little T trauma" or "wasn't THAT bad" you should still try to talk to a doctor about it if it is safe and you have the resources to, but whether or not you have trauma doesn't dictate whether or not you are plural or a system. the system or plural experience does.

and all systems, singlets, plurals, multiples, polyminds, and whatever other label you use, they're all cool. you're all cool. unless you're intentionally being bigoted, then you're lukewarm at best.

and its ok to think you're one thing but end up finding out that you're another. self discovery takes time and you could be wrong about the specific label or how you describe your experience to others, and doctors can absolutely be wrong and be rushing the process or assume you have a certain disorder when you have something else or no disorder entirely or dismiss you of having any disorder when you definitely have the disorder but that doesnt make your attempt at trying to get an explanation wrong.

tldr i dont see polymindedness as a disorder or medical nor do i see plurality and systemhood as medical and while i think some of the labels for polymindedness as plural-adjacent, that doesn't mean that everyone who prefers that label has to be plural or is even experiencing the same thing that "full" plurals do

and even tho i think saying it's "a less harmful term than endos" is misunderstanding endogenic plurality and endogenic systemhood, i think it is a cool term in itself and i think can be developed to be a way of understanding yourself/selves and your parts and how you exist and having a term similar to IFS but that isn't related to a therapy or anything would be lovely for some because the experience known in IFS also exists outside of the therapy and medical labels and whatever.

(also do keep in mind im a system and cant fully understand singlet experiences and cant properly judge how close polymindedness is to actual singlet experiences so i could be seeing it as much more plural and system-esque than it really is. and also definitions that are simplified or trying to explain something as complicated as human experience and awareness are going to get muddied and we're going to each have our own biases because thats how humans are. im not an expert on every experience and i believe that there are definitely some people who have the mental experience polymindedness is intended to describe that aren't disordered and dont identify as having plural experiences that are also experiencing something different than "true singlets" are even if they are closer to singlets than systems and plurals or even median systems.)

Okay, in light of some things I've seen endos say about polyminds, I found something very interesting about the arguments they use against polyminds (Also I'd like to note; polymind terms are similar to system terms because their experiences can be pretty similar to ours, but they are NOT the same as ours. That's why they use different terms. They aren't systems and don't want to use terms that describe similar things to their but that are still fundamentally different. Please grow braincells I beg of you) I noticed a lot of people saying that polyminds are "Watering down system experiences" or "Just endos in denial" Things anti-endos say a lot about endos

Things endos compare a lot to things transmeds say Things they get mad at us for saying about them because they're similar to things that transmeds say

Things they are now saying about polyminds. Isn't. That. Interesting.

That says some very specific things about a lot of pro-endos -Xero

[fictionkinfessions]

@ https://fictionkinfessions.tumblr.com/post/763600681840066560/having-kin-memories-is-weird-especially-for-me

In the otherkin community we have a term for that!

noema [“no-ee-muh”] (plural noemata) - noun

From Ancient Greek νόημα (nóēma, “concept”, “idea”, “perception”, “thought”).

1. (philosophy) The perceived as it is perceived

2. (philosophy) That which is perceived in the noesis/noema duality

3. (rhetoric) An obscure speech or a speech that only yields meaning upon detailed reflection

4. (otherkin community slang) Knowledge about oneself, one's kintype, or the life of one's kintype

It was coined just a few years ago, in 2021, and I'd highly recommend looking up its coining post and tag on the coiner's blog if you want more info on the term and how it's intended to be used.

Note that it does NOT exclusively mean “a ‘kin memory, but psychological” and is defined as “knowledge about your kintype that’s in one way or another inherent.”

From the coiner's post: “It can be psychological, spiritual, a mix, neither, or of unknown origins. The origin of your knowledge has nothing to do with whether you can call it a noema.”

It's just an alternative for those who, for whatever reason, don't want to use the term “memory” to describe what they're experiencing. Hope this helps! 👍

d

[xenodelic]

Actually curious about your take on this. I have been bothered by MUD because I feel like it is the antithesis of antipsychiatric thinking, where disorders are coined based on new patterns of behavior to be pathologized -- and this pathologization is glorified, like in the case of the most popular one (fantasy personality disorder) taking what seems to be benign, if not normal, traits or traits of other conditions like MADD and explaining them in the frameworks of symptoms of a disorder as if it's a DSM entry... Many of these coiners don't seem to have a real understanding of how psychiatry works as a social system rather than a fun hobby. That's how I've been conceiving of it but I admit I really haven't looked into it too much (I think the tag "mud" is banned on Tumblr for unrelated reasons) so I'm curious to see if you all can help me understand it better?

Actually I think your observation/ critique is a very valid one. I do think many of the people participating in the coining of MUD (medically unrecognized disorders, for those out of the loop), are fundamentally upholding the structure of the psychiatric industry in the sense that they find new ways to pathologize human behavior.

However, we don't necessarily condemn MUD as a concept or community. We think that many folks in it are people who have been done harm or neglected by psychiatry, which is what has led them to coining new terms in the first place. I really doubt that someone who would identify as having Fantasy Personality Disorder, isn't genuinely struggling in some way that they feel isn't adequately addressed by whatever frameworks are currently avaliable.

We sympathize with that. Despite ourselves being heavily antipsych, we still strongly identify with the term DID because we feel it adequately labels our struggles with dissociation. For one reason or another, these individuals feel that in some way, the psychiatric industry has failed them. And their response to that is to create new terms within a similar framework to make up for those gaps.

We think that even in a hypothetical post-psychiatry world, people will still likely come up with terms to describe clusters of behaviors. If the term DID didn't exist, we'd likely try to come up with something to describe our struggles, because terms like "disordered plurality" don't cut it for us personally. There is an undeniable usefulness in being able to put a word on your experiences, even at risk of being reductive.

So overall, while I do agree that the MUD community has some issues with continuing the same patterns of pathologization. I think that it stems from the same issues that antipsych thinking does - that they've been failed and neglected psychiatry. I think they've simply chosen a different direction for how they respond to it.

In a way, one could consider the community based coining of new diagnostic labels as a criticism in and of itself. In the way it makes a parody of the supposed scientific, peer reviewed construction of diagnostic terms. It forces one to question what makes an "official" diagnostic label legitimate, as opposed to a MUD term. To us, turning it in a social activity is actually much closer to what we'd want to see in a post-psychiatry world. Where the creation of new mental health terminology falls to the community and the people experiencing it, as opposed to the hands of a beauracracy.

We do hope that those in the community read up more on antipsychiatry, and stray away from intentionally trying to copy the format and rhetoric of diagnostic manuals. I think they do this in an attempt to seem convincing in their legitimacy, but as you said it does unfortunately recreate some of the same problems that the current psychiatry industry has.

We think there's a lot of potential here for opening up questioning of psychiatry and pathologization in general, but there's a lot of work to be done for sure.

[greens-spilled-tea]

Syscourse is so repetitive. All I've seen recently have been people getting so hung up on what specific words mean and arguing about how one side is misconstruing what the word means or misusing the word and how THEIR definition is the correct one and etc.

A system describes someone with dissociated parts of self, right? No, a system is someone who describes their experiences as being multiple identities in one body. No, a system only describes people who are diagnosed with a CDD. What's a CDD? Oh, it's anyone diagnosed with DID or OSDD-1 or P-DID. Does OSDD-1a count as a system? Or OSDD-2? What about other dissociative disorders? MaDD? What even is a disorder? What's plurality? Does this count as oppression? Ableism? Trauma? What do various the -genic labels even mean?

Words have meaning, you can't just use them willy-nilly. Oh, but you can use whatever words you want to describe your own experiences. But don't use words from another group or else you're muddling the language they can use for their own community. The coiner said this but I disagree so I'm changing the meaning. Language is always evolving after all, trying to assign only one meaning to a word is futile. But you shouldn't water down the meaning of words simply to suit your own needs.

This is why we can't have decent discussions in syscourse spaces. Everyone's using different definitions of the same words that in the end people are just misunderstanding each other left and right and often not even trying to understand other people's opinions.

[starmoon-constellation]

one more coining :)

okay, so this was originally coined on another site about 2 months ago, but the site was taken down soooo- plus, we have ZERO idea how to work pluralpedia (in terms of adding terms) so if anyone knows how to do that, feel free to! Just please link this post and credit the Starmoon Constellation (pls don't add system, our sysname is simply "Starmoon Constellation") as the coiner.

okay let's go!

IT Tech

An IT tech (sometimes known as "IT technician" or simply "tech"/"technician") in a plural system is a member who works on innerworld technological infrastructure. This could mean working on security systems, internal communicators, or whatever else is considered technology to a specific system.

IT techs can also bring whatever they want into the outerworld, such as coding the system's security infrastructure in the outerworld, or creating diagrams to assist in creating a new item in the innerworld. This is not required for a member to be an IT tech.

NOTE: we don't care who uses this (including you, anti-endos) but please be respectful of us as coiners and don't recoin this to mean the same thing (even if worded differently) just because we're traumaendo/partially endogenic. Thank you ^_^

[pluralconfessions]

i don't know if this a vent/rant or whatever, but i figured this would be a good place to get this out?? tag with whatever you like.

i think i might be a system of some sort, but i also have severe doubts.

on the one hand, i don't know much of my childhood trauma. i was a "gifted kid". i had undiagnosed adhd-i (now dx, thankfully), and still undiagnosed anxiety. i was a constant daydreamer (which i now believe to be maladaptive daydreaming), and i felt like i changed "identity" a lot, even if i was still [deadname] to the people around me. i shifted in personality, in the way i spoke. i changed online names constantly. but i thought i was just "figuring myself out". i was also, and still am, incredibly sensitive to criticism (rejection sensitive dysphoria). that alone caused me a lot of anxiety, panic attacks, etc. i believe i have some kind of academic trauma that forced me into a perfectionist mindset. but i don't know if that's enough, if i'd be valid as a system should i be one. i also don't really forget anything, but then again things slip from my memories sometimes. it's.. it's weird to explain. i feel more like somebody is taking them than they're being lost/forgotten. is that a thing?

on the other hand, there are a few things to consider. i am fictionkin, but my kins shift. to the point that sometimes i feel like i AM a character, and then i'm another, and then i'm me and i also have a crush on one of the characters i kin now. i also created a lot of selfship OCs, but they live in my head. i know they do, i can hear them rattling around in there. i'm still trying to get them to calm down. i can also picture a "mindspace" of sorts, a big room, there's a large screen where everybody can see what's going on, there's a wall with crystals where each crystal contains a memory (when i remember something uncomfortable i feel like one of the Brain Guys has just knocked it off the shelf), there's a table in the middle, everybody has their own separate rooms. sometimes i think they talk to me. either that or i'm losing my mind. i feel like i shift personalities a lot, i change very rapidly, both online and in real life. it doesn't feel like much to me but i just /know/ i'm different. something changes, how i act or speak, sometimes think. sometimes it's very little, sometimes it's a lot. i notice the way my typing changes. i dissociate, but sometimes i wonder if it's me dissociating or somebody else stepping in to keep me away from potentially traumatic events. that's what it feels like sometimes.

other stuff of note:

i used to want to be a gachatuber, and i would have my little persona, and then suddenly that just /wasn't me/ anymore, i had to change it. but i just saw it as getting bored.

i don't actually know much about the technicalities of system stuff. i see a lot of syscourse but i don't understand it. i think everybody is valid, regardless of where they come from. i know about the concept of multiple people living in/sharing a body, fronting, alters forming, stuff like that. but not much else. mostly, the surface level stuff from being a mogai coiner and seeing a lot of plural interaction in the community. maybe i ought to do more digging.

every time i see stuff discussing systems, i feel drawn to it, and i recognise this feeling. it's the same one i had learning about trans stuff before accepting it, about xenogenders, about alterhumanity, hell, about maladaptive daydreaming. it's probably nothing but it sticks out to me.

if systems are able to have one main host and everyone else can come out to co-front/has access to memories, that hits close to home. i'm just very apprehensive, i'm scared that i'm going to be accused of fakeclaiming or trying to hop on a "trend", which i would never do consciously.

yeah sorry, kinda just had to get this out. i guess help is appreciated? sorry if this isn't a good place. feel free to ignore/delete if it isn't.

I’m really sorry you feel that way. It’s 100% okay to let your feelings out on my blog.

[sophieinwonderland]

yeeeah sorry i feel like the term thats basically "senpai" but typoed... idk it feels MORE racist and appropriate and weird than just tulpa. it might be because of my personal cringe feelings towards the "Senpai UWU" meme thing, but it feels weird and fetishizing, and to have that word be connected with the idea of creating someone in their mind... it feels like it'll just increase the weirdo content in the senpia community

also the discord link seems to be broken for me. idk if the carrd creator noticed that.

and also, i think you (senpia coiner) should use some free website hoster like weebly or neocities instead of accepting cryptocurrency which is encouraging using a currency thats connected to actively harming the environment. i would rather go to a senpiainfo.neocities.org or whatever then know other people have bought "Litecoin" just to pay you

Same on the Discord link! Tried to get there, but it didn't work!

Personally, I'll believe there's no intentional link between the words if that's what they say. But it's not a promising start when even the creator is accidentally writing it as "Senpai."

I think this would be a hurdle for anyone discussing a "Senpia" in any conversation too. People you're talking to will automatically assume it's a misspelling of Senpai (even if you aren't actively writing it wrong).

As an aside, while I kind of get what you're saying, I feel like calling anyone "weirdos" in the plural community is throwing stones in a glass house.

[lastknowntravler]

~ Welcome ~

*^Queue Set to 5 times a Day^*

Rebecca < All pronouns but She/Her < Gender hoarder/Coiner < Agender, Aesthetiflux, Liminalgender mainly < Transmasc < Taken < AutiADHD < Plural < 21

> IRL of James Talloran from SCP and Loverboy from Y2KVR. Reality checks do not work

<> Fallenangelkin

<> Vampirekin

<> Ghostkin

> Talk of Angels, Religions, Religious Trauma

< Being Fallenangelkin effects my gender a lot and i have religious trauma, but anyone of any religion can follow me

> Talk of Weirdcore, Dreamcore, and Liminal Spaces

< I find it comforting

> Eyestrain

< I enjoy eyestrain

> General Horror Content

< Horror is a special interest and effects my gender

> Untagged Slurs, but only ones i can reclaim

< Tagging these takes too much energy out of me, I apologize

#Gender Hoard: My general Gender hoard

#Rebbecas Originals: My original posts

#Eyestrain: Any image that i think is eyestrainy

#Gendered Reblogs: Reblogs i’ve done that i look at and go “Gender”, although none are gender images

#Audio: The very VERY rare audio post

There’s other tags but they’re more for my organization

~ I mainly do Character, Media, Song, Ship, and Aesthetic based stuff

~ If i accidentally recoin something that already exists, just see it as an alt flag (unless you’re who coined it and want me to delete it!)

~ I cannot stop people from liking, Reblogging, or using my terms, but i can stop people from following me

~ I don’t care if you “recoin” my term, once i upload a term i officially have made it so anyone can use it, redesign it, or do whatever to it.

[dutch-oven-cowboy]

Do you happen to know of a consciousness term that’s polyconscious, but with some amount of awareness of headmates thoughts? Like having completely separate consciousnesses but sometimes hearing headmates’ thoughts? Is that hydraconscious?

(I noticed you had a consciousness label, sorry if this is totally not in your scope)

ah no worries!

hydraconscious is described in the original post as “You're you, an individual, but you have access to everyone's memories and you're aware of what's going on at all times unless you stop paying attention by tuning it out or going to sleep. You can just rifle through what you missed or someone can offer it up to you. The only thing fronting does is give you the body's sensory input (minus sight/hearing, which you all have.)”

from what you described i’d say probably not, of course use whatever term you feel fits best

a more polyconscious leaning version of consciousflux might fit better? consciousflux is defined as “…a type of plurality where a system/subsystem/layer/etc. fluxuates from being monoconscious to having an individual consciousness…” in the original post.

you could also look at multiplexconscious which is defined as “each member feels they have a distinct, separate conscious of their own, well the body has its own consciousness which they enter when fronting, making all consciousnesses available to all fronters.”

consciousnesses labels are still relatively new and you could always coin (whether asking a coiner or by yourself) your own term if that feels right.

[british-shorthair-coining]

Hiiii!

This is a mogai and plural terms coining blog.

All terms on this blog are created by members of the British Shorhair Collective.

There is no singular headmate in our collective who coins these terms, instead its our cluster of coiner fragments, alongside other type of fragments, who together coin them. As such you won't see any term assigned to a particular headmate.

This post was also written by a bunch of different fragments.

You are allowed to do whatever you want with these terms; post them on wikis, reblog them, recoin/reclaim, make flags, change the name of the term, use them without credit in any way or anything else.

These terms exist because I wanted there to be a term, in the same way there is a term for a cat (everyone, regardless of how awful they are, says cat). I don't want them to be stance aligned community specific (only for proendos, e.t.c.) or gatekept on stance (even though you can make your own gatekept versions).

The exception to this is I do ask that plural terms are used by plurals/plural aligned e.t.c. as they maintain their plurality as plural terms. And don't lie and say you coined our term when you haven't.

I am not interestead in any discourse. If you come in with discourse I will block you and do what I can to get rid of you. Fuck off, this is not a discourse blog.

You can find our personal blog on @british-shorthair-portal: if you are to like, follow or interact with that blog please follow it's DNI (Do not interact), which you can find in the description.

This blog does not have a DNI, however I will post a byf to help people follow their DNI boundaries.

The following stances are ones which the majority of members and all fronters align with:

- Pro endo/system of all origins

- Pro ace/aro/tertiary attraction/e.t.c. (they are part of the LGBT community).

- Pro alterhuman/kin

- Pro dissomei

- Pro subtliden (an umbrella term for identities such as mspec lesbian/veldian/gay/straight/etc., gaybian/velaurian, lesboy/turigirl, mesque, cistrans/transcis, transmasculine girl/transfeminine boy, and more; essentially a replacement/alternate term for 'contradictory labels' )

- Pro objectum

- Pro xenogender

- Pro chronosians

- Antiship

- Anti radqueer

- Anti harmful transid (harmful transition)

- Anti consang

- Anti xenosatanists

- Anti-contact for harmful contact paraphilias

- Anti gatekeeping identities

- Anti harsssment, doxxing and suicide bating

- neutral on Tulpa terms (we are not tibetan Buddhists, so don't feel we should say whether it is or is not culture appropriation, we won't coin any tulpa terms and don't use them ourselves)

We are essentially Coralqueer and Hazardqueer!

[amateuralterhuman]

Gender Coining Post

[Image description: A five by three pride flag with five horizontal stripes of equal size. From top to bottom, the colors of the stripes are: purple, blue, white, orange, and red. End image description.]

Shapeshiftergender / Shapeshiftian

[Pronunciation for screen readers: Shape shifter gender, or, Shape shift ee in]

Coining date: February 3, 2022

Definition: A gender that is influenced by the concept of shape-shifters and shape-shifting, whether due to a personal connection to the concept or due to being a shape-shifter yourself.

Type of gender: Any type! I imagine that most beings that would identify with this term probably have fluid genders, but it’s not required to identify as this. Same thing with xenic genders. This identity can be used as a modifier or as a stand-alone label.

Inclusivity: Anyone can use this term! You don’t need to be xeno-gender or genderfluid or alter-human or non-human or whatever else. Please do not gate-keep this term, it was specifically designed to be as inclusive as possible.

Examples, flag color symbolism, and boundaries for using this flag and label are below the cut.

A (non-exhaustive) list of examples:

A trans man with a shape-shifting alter-human identity that has an impact on his gender.

A genderfluid person who feels connected to shape-shifting as a concept because of their genderfluidity.

A xenic person whose identity is best explained through the metaphor of shape-shifting.

A plural system member who is part of a species of shape-shifters or can change form in headspace.

Flag color meanings:

Purple—Connection to the fantastical, otherworldly, and unknown

Blue—Fluidity of form

White—Solidarity and inclusivity of identity

Orange-yellow—Freedom and joy

Red—Sense of adventure and defiance of norms

Boundaries for using this flag and label

What I am okay with you doing:

Using this label and flag regardless of our differences in opinion and belief

Making alternative flags, additional symbols, etc as long as you credit me for the term in some way

Creating more specific labels or flags that use this label as an umbrella term

Using my flag and label in writing, art, profile pictures, etc without credit. Just please direct others to this coining post if they ask about the official definition or the label’s origins

What I am NOT okay with you doing:

Attempting to redefine this label to exclude anybody, especially if you use my flag

Posting this label or flag in any archive without crediting me

Claiming that you were the original coiner or designer

What I would really prefer you didn’t do:

Redesigning the flag specifically because of a difference in position, opinion, or belief (e.g. “Here’s an alternative version of the shapeshiftian flag for people who don’t like that the coiner supports m-spec gays and lesbians”)

Obviously, I can’t actually stop you from doing these things. So consider this a polite request to please just respect my boundaries here.

[girldraki]

do you have tips on writing maiden systems? /gen (thank u in advanced!)

hi we just remembered this ask, sorry!

so! first of all we are not predominantly median, although we have some median subsystems, which means we are not the best resource for this and most of this “advice” will be in the form of handing you a bunch of links to actual medians. on that note if anyone median is following us and wants to add onto this go for it

second of all, to borrow a phrase from autism activists, if you have met one system you’ve met one system, particularly given the breadth of experiences encompassed by the median label, so just try and take in as much and as varied information as is feasible for you

(the above also means you’re gonna have to make a decision on how your character(s)’ plurality works specifically at some point, if you haven’t already. this doesn’t have to be super detailed, it can just be, like, “they’re pretty differentiated and usually don’t lose time” or something like that.)

in terms of the BIG LINK DUMP:

the wonderful world of the midcontinuum is the first ever resource on this topic, hosted by its original coiner, vickis (warning for unmarked discussion of basically every kind of abuse depending on the article, also unfortunately some of the links are broken)

median-culture-is has a lot of shortform personal experiences with median plurality

looking into monoconscious experiences might also help; while it’s by no means a universal or exclusively median experience it’s pretty common for medians to our awareness

while it’s not a personal experiences archive, poking around pluralpedia’s median term pages might help to get a general idea of the range of experiences under the median umbrella

i dont think they come up in any of the other links but semiplural pronouns are median-specific

also, i mean, like we were posting about a little while ago, decent plural rep of any sort is almost nonexistent. if it’s obvious you’re trying to write earnest, informed representation people will be happy with whatever you make unless you somehow really fuck it up (and if you do that they’ll probably be pretty sympathetic)

we hope this helps!

[subsystems]

not sure if this is the right place to ask this, but i just read your essay deep dive on the plural community and i have two questions

1) were empowered multiples originally coming from a stance of “we weren’t created out of trauma” or “we aren’t disordered” bc from your essay, i got the impression that the original debate was about how empowered multiples were more functional than survival multiples bc they didn’t need tw , therapy , etc

2) where do the ideas of tulpas originally come from

Hey, anon! Thanks for the ask! Sorry for the kind of long answer.

For your 2nd question on tulpas, this article might be helpful to you.

For your 1st question, empowered multiplicity came from a stance of “we aren’t disordered.” Empowered multiplicity = non-disordered plurality. That’s really all that there is. 

If you’re interested in more, though, here’s a bit of a ramble under the read-more...

Back in the days of empowered multiplicity, it became a pretty popular community over time before phasing into the non-disordered plural communities that we now have today. That’s why, in my essay, I tried to look mostly at the people who coined the term “empowered multiplicity” and how the early community was using it.

The plurals who came up with empowered multiplicity were called Shaytar and Bekaio. They ended up creating a website/forum specifically for empowered multiples called MultiGardens.

Unfortunately, a lot of these extremely early things (talking prior to 1999) just weren’t archived but if you find anything cool, hmu!

In a later essay that they wrote in 2000, Shaytar explained that they came up with empowered multiplicity with Bekaio simply because they needed a word that wasn’t DID/MPD. They said that their idea of multiplicity was something entirely separate and different from DID. It could be either traumagenic or non-traumagenic...it just couldn’t be DID.

Why did they use the term “multiplicity” for this despite its inherent ties to DID? Well, in their essay they explained that they only used the word “multiplicity” because they originally believed they had DID...and they simply had no other word to convey their experiences at the time. (And also later expressed that if they had found the soulbonding community first then they probably would have used their terminology instead of the DID community’s.)

Even though Shaytar and Bekaio were the coiners of empowered multiplicity, it was really Dark Personalities’ interpretation of empowered multiplicity that popularized the concept. Their interpretation was particular ableist; they made the empowered multiplicity community EXTREMELY focused on functionality. Their interpretation hinged on this whole idea that people couldn’t be empowered if they were “soft” survivors who needed therapy, trigger warnings, and safe spaces--which is ableist. I get it, but it’s flat out ableist.

I mean...sure, at least the empowered multiplicity community was sometimes accepting of survivors, but it’s really the things they were saying about disabled survivors. Even if some of them were fellow survivors, some of the stuff I read on those websites was like a fucking sucker punch.

To quote Collective Phenomenon: “I don’t give a rip how functional you are or think you are in comparison to other multiples– if you call it ‘MPD’ or ‘DID’ or refer to yourself as a disorder, you are not an empowered multiple. You can call yourself whatever the hell you want, but when your page is about nothing but your therapy sessions and how much you hate being multiple and all those icky alters and your newest horrible flashback that made you want to go jump off a cliff, all I can say is that there’s nothing new under this sun. ” (X)

^ The ironic part is that this is from an essay on why empowered multiplicity was inclusive of survivors...just not the disabled ones, lol!

As you can guess, a lot of people were fucking angry and hurt over all of this stuff. Looking through these old websites showed nothing new to me. The same discourse people are having in the present day were being had all the way back then.

The only archived piece of MultiGardens I could ever find was this one page from 2000 announcing when they were shutting it down. Guess the main reason why they shut it down?

The answer: Syscourse.