interesting

[newmoon17.livejournal.com]

http://www.healthyplace.com/Communities/Personality_Disorders/Site/transcripts/multiple_system.htm

In interesting site. I think they are held backby some popular notions (like calling MPD DID and not recognizign that not all personality differences are disorders :P) But they also seem more open minded than a lot of psychology sites. Also, they put communication between personalities as a priority and recognize that integration is not a common nor even desirable solution to any problems in systems.

They also have a 'write your own journal' section, you can read other journals (there are only three) and apply for your own.

I sent in an application - kind of scary but I doubt my parents will ever come across it ;) I am afraid of what a lot of singlets would think of me - but I am recognizing more and more that those within have just as much right to shout I EXIST to the world as I do. I do not want my body to be their prison.

Comments

[eridanusus.livejournal.com]

MPD isn't a fucking personality disorder.

Damus

[aneko-.livejournal.com]

like calling MPD DID and not recognizign that not all personality differences are disorders

I don't think they were saying that... they was saying I think that not all personality differences are disorders.

Differences is between disorders and personality...

[eridanusus.livejournal.com]

I think what he meant was that they have MPD in the personality disorders section. According to the DSM, it's not, and the term is misleading.

Damus isn't even supposed to be around in the first place of course. *sigh* And we don't see our therapist for over a week.

[newmoon17.livejournal.com]

Yah - that part upset me. But compared to the other sites I have been checking out - at least they seemed somewhat more open minded. Hard to find psychologists who can even get beyond stereotyping all multiples as dissasociative fragmented survivors of trauma who need to 'integrate' or whatnot.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

I sent in an application - kind of scary but I doubt my parents will ever come across it ;)

Do you have to show your real name?

I am afraid of what a lot of singlets would think of me - but I am recognizing more and more that those within have just as much right to shout I EXIST to the world as I do. I do not want my body to be their prison.

You know, 'fear of what people will think' was a huge thing keeping us back at first as well. Before we were out to anyone, Azu posted something in her old journal suggesting that people shouldn't automatically assume multiplicity is a disorder, especially if they didn't actually know any multiples, and promptly got called a "fucking idiot" by somebody whom Azu believed to like her and think well of her. This girl went on and on about how she was very offended because she had 'met people with MPD' working in a mental hospital, and was, moreover, a psychology major (which, of course, gave her more expertise about the whole thing) and finished off with yelling at Azu to shut up. She was, at the time, pretty intimidated, and it essentially made her decide to not come out in that journal as she was planning to.

She was paranoid for quite a long time about people jumping on her and yelling that she didn't know what she was talking about; but actually, the 'fucking idiot' girl proved to be an isolated incident (and she had apparently been looking for an excuse to pick a fight with Azu anyway. She also went off about two months later in her journal in an extended rant about how "mental illness cannot be self-diagnosed," and how MPD was this horrible, severe disorder and how if you really suspect you have it you must see a doctor immediately.) There will always be people like her-- armchair experts who read a book or met a couple people so now they think they know Exactly How It Is. It can be easier to tell yourself this than to actually believe it, but seriously, unless they're in a position to make decisions for you, their opinions don't matter. They're just little pipsqueaks who are threatened by the idea that their expertise may not be as extensive as they think it is. Be yourself and tell your truth and have pride in it. Other people's attempts to drag you down will not make your own experiences cease to exist.

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

Interesting use of non-clinical language. I choose not to trust it.

Re: L

[newmoon17.livejournal.com]

It is a chat transcript and not a live radio thing - so yah I would not doubt if they had edited it - and since their audience was laymen I doubt they would get that technical.

Although a lot of their answers seem copies of the other (but then it is hard answering from the top of ones head) but I was ettign annoyed with the repitition of 'that is one of the worst things....' although they all were rather hard scenarios.

Re: L

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

We've got a radio interview from fifteen years ago you can compare it with. http://www.astraeasweb.net/plural/newsline.html What we think happens is that the shrink being interviewed has explained these things so many times that they fall into a rote pattern. It's very typical for them to lead off with "We all dissociate... highway hypnosis... extreme trauma... defense mechanism..." etc., etc., etc. You can practically set your watch by them.

Re: L

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

Precisely. That is why, in something like this, I would expect more rote use of clinical language; falling back on training. There is a pronounced deviation from that as far as I can tell.

Unless what little non-clinical language the online multiple community has managed to develop is now considered part of the clinical training...?

Hard to believe since most of them are still taught only one of us is 'real", and all her mention of hosts and alters emphasises that this is still being taught, making her use of certain phrasing and words (No psychiatrist I've ever met would use the word multiplicity except to humor a patient) even more suspicious.

Re: L

[newmoon17.livejournal.com]

That is why it intrigued me - there was a lot of stereotyping and mentioning the popular theories of the day - but the doctor also seemed to be *thinking* for herself a bit. Like, being trained one way your whole life, but starting to look around and trying to understand something the psychology world tries to undermine.

I actually use terms 'host' and alters' as well as multiplicity myself, just because they are terms relatively easy to explain and that a lot of people understand. I actually like the term alter, because I do not see multiples as fragments of personalities, but each as his/her own unique alternative identity.

Either way the site was compelling because it looks to be trying to look deeper, a quality which is hard to find now days. They have a long way to go - but I would guess they would be open to more input from people and are open to knew ideas - the site did not seem rigidly attatched to modern accepted theory.

They might be a posible contact in the future, a place that might be willing to talk or work with the multiplicity community to understand better, and perhaps come to support multiplicity and reject the idea that it is a 'disorder' and stand up against the mainstream societal view.

IE, I think they have potential ;)

Re: L

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

Hard to believe since most of them are still taught only one of us is 'real", and all her mention of hosts and alters emphasises that this is still being taught, making her use of certain phrasing and words (No psychiatrist I've ever met would use the word multiplicity except to humor a patient) even more suspicious.

Many of them nowadays also seem to be taught that only one of us is 'real' because the rest of us are delusions. Was there a date given on that interview? I couldn't find one.

Re: L

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

I don't see a date other than the copyright 2000 at the bottom of the page, so no telling.

Their community, though, is described as DID/MPD at the end of the interview.

[redrainstorm.livejournal.com]

We chat at healthyplace ALL the time!