(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)