(no subject)

[sophiaserpentia]

This morning I'm revisiting an idea I contemplated a little over a year ago -- that 'fragmented personalities' are far more common than any of us suspect. We are used to thinking of "selves" as something that are handed out one to a customer. That is: in popular belief, one body = one self.

I'm no longer convinced that this is how it works at all.

I'm not talking about what the medical community calls Multiple Personality Disorder, though I think that this is possibly only an exaggerated case of what goes on in all of us.

Please bear with any generalities or imprecision in the following questions. This poll is meant to be intuitive and illustrative, not scientific or precise.

To protect anonymity, I am setting this poll so that only I can see the results. I'll post the figures as people reply.

Which of the following, if any, match your experience?

[Poll #199820]

Comments

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

I'm having a hard time filling out your poll. My experiences are relevant, but not in a yes/no sort of way.

I guess you know a little bit about my situation from my journal, although I haven't described it fully and concisely in a long time, so I might be wrong about that... if you want details, I don't mind sharing; otherwise, just count me in as "fragmented."

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I was afraid the poll would come across poorly. I don't know how else to ask these questions though, or try to approach the issues in a way that could be 'tallied.' Maybe there IS no way to do such a thing.

I'm not familiar with your particular situation. Is there an entry or series of entries you can point to?

[hai-kah-uhk.livejournal.com]

Umm... everything from Sept. 2001 (the very beginning) to Jan 2002 (when my resident passed on) tells a major part of the story... the rest is hopelessly scattered and not even very well phrased for the most part.

I couldn't tell you how to make the poll better. Many (perhaps most) of my friends fit somewhere under the vast blanket term 'fragmented' (I used to be an active member of both the online and the local Multiple communities, and my own identity, such that it is, inspires people to share their own experiences with fragmentation with me) but it's so hard to categorize them, or even to make generalized statements or recognize trends, and I don't like to shove things into boxes anyway so I don't bother. But I'd guess that most of my friends would have as much difficulty filling out a yes/no poll as I did, although if you ask them about being fragmented, they're likely to give you a 10-page history/description. Including myself, if you really wanted it. :o)

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

I've seen similar behavior/personality patterns emerge in several people I know, in addition to myself. Sometimes these patterns are so coherent and distinct that they are nameable.

I keep coming back to Jungian archetypes like the shadow and the animus/anima.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

I have never been formally diagnosed with MPD or its newly named incarnation, "DID". However, I know this is just because I am never honest with therapists - and why would I be?
The very "disorder" itself is considered by some to be a hoax, which really pisses me off. The people who come up with this are the same people who write books that says recovered memories are all lies, when amnesia of traumatic events is something that has been recorded for hundreds of years. They also want to pretend childhood abuse doesn't exist, which leads me to believe that they are either trying to hide something (either their own abusiveness or their past experiences they cannot admit to) or they cannot for whatever reason believe the very common tragedy of abuse that impacts so many families and children.
But even beyond the authorized psychiatric view of what the mind "should" be - I don't think people are as singular as they believe. RAW refers to himself in much of his writing by various names, depending on which aspect of himself he was exhibiting at the time: The Skeptic; The Scientist; The Mystic. The Qabalah teaches that there is one god, yet s/he is referred to by a multitude of names depending on the aspect s/he is showing or the capacity in which s/he is moving/acting: there is EHEIEH, the Creator or the I AM; Elohim Gibor, the warlike god form of Geburah; Adonai ha'Aretz, the God-form who rules earthly matters and concerns; yet these are understood to be different aspects of the same deity. If man was created in God's image, we can expect the same diversity within ourselves.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Interesting that you brought God-names into this. One of the thoughts I intend to explore with this is the idea that pagan gods relate or reflect different aspects of the psyche, some of which manifest within us. A structured course of deity-invocation -- like pathworkings or "rising through the aethyrs" -- seems to take us through the whole spectrum, as a way of integrating all of these psychic aspects into our individuality.

No monotheistic religion has a single conception of God. Judaism, as you point out, uses different God names. Christianity has at least three (if you exclude qualities like charis and soteria which may be additional aspects of God). Islam has the 99 Names of God.

[azaz-al.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Trinity (more commonly known than the Qabala) is a classic "MPD" version of God... three in one.

I concur on the pagan names and such. I like to lok behind the actual belief in an actual entity known as (insert name of deity) and more into the common human archetypal thinking patterns that give rise to common experiences which are them externalized...

Bouncing Back to Wholeness

[freeandclear.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think you're on to something here. All of us dissociate to some degree. I believe it's a protective mechanism. I also believe that some of us are better than others at bouncing back to integral wholeness.

Thanks for bringing this up.

[alobar.livejournal.com]

I took the quiz, but a lot of the choices squicked me out. Not your fault. I just hate the shrink worldview. I/we am/are legion, but *NOT* fractured. Over the years I have come to feel that people who have no conscious awareness of plurality within are at one end of a spectrum & those with myriad distinct persons within are at the other end. There also appears to be a second axis, perpendicular to the first with internal peace at one end and internal strife at the other.

Although I sure have no proof of this, I feel the population distribution along both axes to be a Bell-shaped curve. Because of shrink-induced social stigma, many pretend they are one person internally, when they are not. Depression (imo) can easily come from repression of one or more of those living within. I strongly feel there is no correlation between one's perceptions of internal persons and so-called "mental illness". However, I do feel that being at war with oneself is perhaps prone to make it very hard to be functional, or love oneself.

While I have not yet had the opportunity to get to know the man personally, I am inclined to speculate that perhaps Bush, our prez, suffers from having no internal dialogs, and therefore no hesitancy about doing amazingly stupid shit -- whereas I, in my plurality, am far more likely to examine options from many different angles, change my position several times, and then proceed from a perspective of unanimity or at least a clear consensus, subject to later revision.

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

There also appears to be a second axis, perpendicular to the first with internal peace at one end and internal strife at the other.

This is an excellent point. If I had thought to explore that angle the questions asked would be a bit different.


Because of shrink-induced social stigma, many pretend they are one person internally, when they are not.

Indeed. Or, many never think to question the prevailing view.


I strongly feel there is no correlation between one's perceptions of internal persons and so-called "mental illness". However, I do feel that being at war with oneself is perhaps prone to make it very hard to be functional, or love oneself.

I agree heavily. To me the indication of mental illness would not be the presence of internal persons (whole or partial) or other deviations from the "psychic norm" -- but rather the level of peace one is able to find within and without.