Session 9

[laurenthemself]

I have a question for everyone here, about a movie I recently picked up in my local DVD shop's bargain bin. It's called Session 9, and it includes a character who appears to have some sort of dissociative identity.



In short, the movie's about an asbestos removal team at an condemned mental hospital. One of them finds old tapes with session numbers (hence the title), of a psychiatrist talking to a woman (Mary Hobbes) and her alters (Wendy, a young girl; Simon, who doesn't appear until session 9; and there was another alter whose name I cannot recall, it's not listed on the IMDB)

The character in question (Gordon) -- it's a long story, but what I think has happened is that he has picked up someone else's alter (apologies if I use incorrect terminology) as a kind of walk-in. This personality is a killer. But he (the killer is referred to as 'Simon') is, according to the tapes, an alter of Mary Hobbes. It turns out that Simon killed Mary's family, and now, in Gordon's body, he has killed the cleanup crew.

My question, if you're still reading after that hideous ramble (sorry -- I'm not always very concise late at night), is this:

Has anyone here ever heard of a case where someone's alter turned up in someone else's group of alters?

Apologies again if I'm using poor terminology, and if I'm not being very clear. I will clarify in comments if people have questions, and I'm always willing to accept corrections to my terminology.



I don't know if anyone else here will have seen this movie, or will have any answers for me, but I thought I would ask.

Thank you for reading this post.

Comments

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

I've seen it. It freaked Lu out a little, she doesn't like 'creepy' movies much.

(alter is a dubious term, but it gets the point across I guess). I can't remember if he himself hears the tapes or not, I'd have to rewatch it. If he did then it's entirely possible he picked it up that way, as opposed to any spiritual way.

Anyways, to your question. I know of people who juggle people from one system to another on a fairly regular basis. Generally they're people, rather than 'alters', and they usually have a desire to body hop.

[laurenthemself]

Thank you very much for replying. It was a creepy movie, even to me, and I'm 21 (mostly).

What term would you favour over 'alters'? Just 'people'? I recognise the fact that these are actually other people who have the misfortune to be stuck in one body (or more, if they body hop), but I'm trying to find a word that explains that they are not, well, the original owner of the body.

And I wondered whether Simon was a kind of demon rather than another person within the system (there, now, I meant to use 'system' rather than 'group' in the original post. Silly me.). That would make things entirely different, but I don't think they entirely clarified that in the movie.

Again, thank you for replying. I appreciate any answers I can get, as it's something that's been niggling at my mind since I saw the movie, enough to make me join the community just to ask! (Although I do have other reasons to join the community...)

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

I just use people. IMO, whether they're the first person to be there or not doesn't matter. I personally use the term host for Luwana (as in, hostess) out of habit because it's just what I always called her. It was a case of, this was her house and I was her guest. Now it's not so applicable, but I'm used to it. I tend to see it as they're all people, and there may be one (or several) hosts/hostesses, and it's perfectly alright to say "They're the one who was born in the body", and I prefer that to "Oh, they *weren't* *points*"

Demon, maybe. Like you say it wasn't clarified, so we're making it up as we go along here. Many of the system hopping people are indeed classed as spirits (as am I)

[laurenthemself]

I think I may be biased to use language that implies an original person and then additional people because... well.

Do you mind if I talk about myself for a bit here? You can ignore the rest of this comment if you like :-)

Personally, I don't exactly see myself as a 'singlet' (not least because here in Australia it's also an item of clothing!). In the past I have definitely had times when I was not in control of my own body, and these times may have meant that another person inside me was in control.

I am aware of other people here with me. Not as fully developed as a lot, indeed, probably the majority, of multiple systems. I refer to them as my 'muses' rather than as separate people.

They do:
* speak to me inside my own head
* have distinct personalities
* have distinct things they prefer me to be doing
* have names
* fight with each other and with me
* have a small measure of inner mental control over what I do, but usually just tiny stuff like picking clothes (I've changed outfits a few times some mornings because we can't get a consensus)

They do not:
* physically 'front' (except for once or twice a long time ago and even then I'm not positive what was happening)
* talk aloud to other people

I also occasionally refer to myself in plural terms without consciously choosing to do so.

You don't have to reply to this comment if I'm rambling too much. Actually, do you think I should post this to the community and ask people what they think about my possible plural nature? I might be 'median' or 'mid-continuum', but I think I've made it fairly obvious that I'm not quite up with the terminology, and I'm trying to be.

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

It sounds like midcontinuum. You can post it to the community if you like. To be honest it sounds like the way Lu and I used to be almost exactly.

Notabley, I get called a muse. And a pup. God I hate that word. *pets her not-so-beloved 'mun'*

Most people here don't like the word host, but I still use it. You use terminology that fits for you. For some people 'alter' is accurate. I don't like it at all because it not only implies that these people are 'less than' the original, but also stemds from things like DID etc where they aren't even whole people sometimes. It just grates me. It's so much easier to say they're people and change to alter if people is innaccurate, than to say alter and risk causing offense and having to change to calling them people.

We have an original. Just, these days I wind up fronting more. a lot of emphasis seems placed on 'the original', when in reality power structures are often more dynamic than that.

[laurenthemself]

'Pup'. Oh dear. Poor you.

I don't feel like a 'host' per se. More like a person with some friends who aren't physically real outside of my body (we do have an inner world where they have physical representations -- and a castle!). I think 'alters' is inaccurate because if you're talking to me, you're talking to me. They might be behind my eyes and listening, but they won't be the ones making the responses (although they will sometimes make some suggestion to me as to what to say).

I'm going to move this to a community post so I can get some more opinions. Thank you so much for yours. I'm not big on labelling, but it's seemed to me lately that a label to describe my possible state of plurality might help me understand myself a bit better.

[prettyrazor.livejournal.com]

Happens a lot between my wife's system and mine. It's not that uncommon.

I saw the movie, too.

-Casey, of The People

[laurenthemself]

Oh, okay. I had the feeling it was possible, based on prior discussions that I've read on this community.

What did you think of the movie? I prefer psychological thrillers to hack-and-slash horror.

[prettyrazor.livejournal.com]

I liked it... Don't remember much of it now, though, LOL. I like hack-and-slash horror but also really enjoy psychological thrillers. My system writes screenplays, and slashers are one of our favorites genres to write because there are rules and if you know them well, you know just how to break/bend them to make the story interesting and different... And we love writing witty, sarcastic one-liners, LOL, which is perfect for the slasher genre... But psych thrillers are awesome, too.

[laurenthemself]

I think there are rules in many genres. I write fantasy -- finished my first novel last November for National Novel Writing Month -- and I'm trying to work out all the conventions for that so I can break them. With great glee, in fact. I love breaking rules (er, provided they're the sort of rule it's okay to break... not like laws and stuff!).

I loved House on Haunted Hill (the recent version) because it was a little bit gory, but it was IMMENSELY psychological. I think that the mental asylum setting chills me because it's real, those tortuous devices are really what doctors used to use... same reason Return to Oz, with the electroshock machine, freaked me out when I was younger.

[prettyrazor.livejournal.com]

I am a 3-year NaNoWriMo participant!! It's so much fun!

I liked House on Haunted Hill, too.

We're terrified of electroshock therapy... We believe in reincarnation and we're convinced the fear comes from a past life.

[laurenthemself]

2-year NaNo participant, one year winner, and my muses are so much help with it!

House on Haunted Hill was one of the few 'horror movies' that scared me, and so I liked it because it worked!

I've never undergone ECT, and I hope I never have to. I also believe in reincarnation -- in fact, that's a belief that my whole system shares, one of the things we can all agree on. Have you ever considered trying to find out more about what might have happened in your past life/lives relating to ECT, or is it too scary to contemplate?

[prettyrazor.livejournal.com]

it scares us too much.

nanowrimo is soooo much fun. we won twice... couldn't do it last year... had mono during last year's nanowrimo and could barely keep our eyes open.

-melinda, of the people

[laurenthemself]

Then we will talk about NaNo instead!

I couldn't do it the first time I tried (2003) because of things happening in my life, like university exams, that just made it far too impossible.

Last year, my muses and I had a system meeting and worked together, and we actually got about 80,000 words done in November (it helped that we had less exams!). I'm now editing the novel... the muses are excellent for creativity and plot points and bursts of fabulous description, but rewrites are essential to pick up stupid little mistakes.

Sorry to hear you had mono :-( I've never had it, thank Gods; I couldn't stand to be that sick!

[prettyrazor.livejournal.com]

yeah, mono sucked!!!

we actually went back, edited, and completed our 2003 novel. it's not bad. it was horror, all about vampires and lycanthropes and slayers and psychics... it was a lot of fun. it's not really good enough to publish, but we're happy with it. what genres have you done? we wrote a drama the first year, the horror one the second year, and horror this year. we made it to over 30,000 words in 4 days, but couldn't write anymore after that... (for those 4 days, we did nothing but write, literally.)

i think we have some stuff in common. i added your journal to our friends list. is that okay? if not, i'll take it off. if it is, you can add us too. :)

[laurenthemself]

2003 was an unfinished fairly generic novel about uni students, set in Melbourne (where I live). 2004 was a fantasy novel, which is much more my style. I plan to do the sequel for NaNo this year.

I've added you back, and left you a huge comment, and now I'm panicking and hoping I haven't said too much in it and scared you right back away again...

[laurenthemself]

Thank you very much for the link. I'll go and read.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

This movie was reviewed at Astraea and Pavilion. It is one of the worst portrayals of multiplicity to come out of Hollywood in recent memory.

At Astraea's Reviews (http://www.astraeasweb.net/plural/review.html) you will find reviews of films and television shows, mostly tabloid junk but a few other things too, including animarelic's succinct review of Session 9.

There are many more media reviews at Pavilion Media Review. (http://www.karitas.net/pavilion/library/library_media.html)

[ricktboy.livejournal.com]

Wolf can body hop at will...he's a walk in, not created or born here, and he's been inside Tara and Faith's girlfriend, and also inside some other people I know...I'll see if I can get him to post about this later...

Rick
Pack Collective

[laurenthemself]

Thank you, Rick -- I'd appreciate Wolf's point of view on this, if you can get him to post.

This is a pointless comment.

[forever-alone.livejournal.com]

That movie was pretty bad. The imagery was good, and it had its moments; it wasn't even the horrible portrayal of multiplicity that bothered me, as I was expecting that. The movie just didn't make any damn sense. The deleted scenes only made it more confusing. Nevertheless, I've been dying to find a copy of it for the sake of completing my movies-that-inspired-Silent Hill collection. I can't find it anywhere.

Re: This is a pointless comment.

[laurenthemself]

*checks userinfo for your location*

USA... I'm sorry, I can't help you. I'm in Australia, and thus that's the only place I've seen copies.

It was pretty bad, though.

Re: This is a pointless comment.

[laurenthemself]

'Centres of awareness' -- I think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. Thank you ever so much for commenting!

Terminology is the thing that I'm having the most trouble with. I've read this comm before, and various related communities, and I'm trying not to tread on any toes, but considering that different people prefer different terms, it's pretty hard.

Where are you in Australia, just out of curiosity? I'm in Melbourne.

Re: This is a pointless comment.

[laurenthemself]

I have a website for my fanfiction and some of my original fiction, but it doesn't really have much about me.

http://www50.brinkster.com/princesslauren/index.html

[bleedingcherub.livejournal.com]

That's one of my favs, even if it does send out a negative message about multiplicity (but if it didn't, it wouldn't be much of a story). The alters are Wendy, Billy, The Princess, and Simon.

[bleedingcherub.livejournal.com]

Oh, and about Simon-- I'm pretty sure (from what he says) that Sion represents the evil inside each one of us singlets.

[laurenthemself]

Thanks for your comments. I zoned out a bit during the movie and I think I may have missed something vital because I got quite confused as to what was happening with Simon.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen it, but as confusingly written as I'm told this film was, chances are it wasn't your problem.