Progress

[vinik.livejournal.com]

I would like to hear what people have to say on the matter of progress in the Multiple community. I find it personally disheartening that there seem to be so many things disagreed upon amongst everyone, and I wonder if any ground can truly be made when it seems there are so many deep rifts?

However I am also aware that there have been rifts in other movements as well, and some continue to this very day. So considering how long it took for those movements to become public and effective, should the same be expected for us?

Please lend me your thoughts. I am not a very knowledgable man on such matters.

Thank you,

Birdman (however you may call me Bird if you wish)

Comments

[kasiawhisper.livejournal.com]

I think there'll always be some kind of disagreeing.. the only thing that Multiples truly have in common is "more than one individual sharing a single physical body" (or some similar definition)..

how it happened, how many there are, are they completely separate or splits, is there an "inner world", "natural" or "medical", empowered, DID, Soulbonds, Muses, created for a purpose, co-fronting, never fronting, difficulties with communication, slipping into each others' thoughts, kids using little speak, individuals who are a job or emotion-only, all humans, no humans, born on another world, everyday Joe, being a different gender than the body, different religions and beliefs, worried about family finding out, coming "out" to the entire world, and so much more!

There are so many variables involved behind just saying that one is Multiple, that it's really not any wonder there are so many disagreements.. the important thing to remember is that even though there are so many differences, there are alot we have in common.. one being that most want to be accepted and to perhaps belong somewhere.. and to be treated with respect.. we are all individuals with our own identities and our own feelings and thoughts.. I only wish that people out there would realize this and treat each other with a little more caring...

[luwana.livejournal.com]

Hrm. Define that progress?

As above there's always going to be disagreements.

[vinik.livejournal.com]

I believe in this case progress would mean the following:

-uniting under a common cause
-educating and welcoming those in the community who are younger or who have previously been unable to access information
-educating the public about multiplicity in order to dispel fear and stereotyping

I'm not sure what else. We have a migraine headache that we are fighting off this evening, so my thoughts are not quite as sharp as usual.

-Birdman

[luwana.livejournal.com]

- Common cause?
- We do that pretty well, and I think the amount of cynicism is a good thing.
- I didn't know we were all meant to be doing that o_O

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

Ummm... I didn't know we were supposed to be progressing in any direction; I assumed our basic purpose here was just self-expression on issues relating to multiplicity.

I don't think we have any 'common cause'. As kasiawhisper points out, we don't even have any consensus on what "multiplicity" means, how it happens, or what (if anything) ought to be done about it.

Anyone's free to join the community, most posts from newcomers get friendly responses, and there are lots of links on the Info Page for anybody seeking information, so I'd say we're doing all right with the educating and welcoming.

I think any member of the general public who took a look at this community would figure out that we're not a bunch of psycho killers prone to wandering around in fugue states searching for victims. However, the stereotype of multiple=mentally ill would probably not be dispelled, because a lot of the people here openly identify themselves as having psychiatric disorders of one sort or another, for which many of them are undergoing therapy. It's not true of everyone here, of course, but that doesn't matter where stereotypes are concerned; stereotyping isn't rational behavior.

I'm sorry you have a migraine; hope you will be feeling better soon.

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

I'd say there is one thing we all have consensus on.

We should be treated with respect. That is somewhere to start with.

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

having been through the transexual experience - i can say that the divisions here are less strident and destructive than the divisions i have seen in the so called 'transgender'movement.

There is no elite that profits from the movement.

There are no people in the movement to further their own political
careers.

There are divisions, but the attacks on people who differ in opinion do
not go to the extent that i have seen in the trans community. I personally
have been outed to my job by people who saw me as a threat. I know people
who were physically threatened for holding an unpopular opinion. I don't see
that happening here.

[sethrenn.livejournal.com]

There is no elite that profits from the movement.

There are no people in the movement to further their own political
careers.

I think the major reason we've been immune from that thus far is that the 'movement' (if you could call it that? healthy multiplicity, empowered multiplicity, etc) is small, and mostly restricted to the internet, thus far. Generally if you want people to sit up and take notice, you have to take these things offline. The trans movement(s) has been active offline for quite a long time; it's a lot larger, and has more representatives in the public view.

Part of this is because a lot of us, especially those of us involved in academic work, are hiding under the bed. Everyone's afraid of having the Insanity Finger pointed at them. If a university professor is fired for being trans, there's much more likely to be a public outcry than if someone in the same position is fired for being multiple. Admittedly, we've been guilty of this too, in that some of us are prone to advising people to keep quiet about their multiplicity, due to cynicism about the ability of society to accept it, or at least some of its more 'unusual' manifestations.

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

Academia is a rough environment. My father, mother and
stepfather were all professors and i remember the backbiting
that went on around tenure and faculty lines.

At my work i am out to a couple of people - one of whom
noticed my switching. He explained that his cousin works
with multiples in his job as a Social worker, but he presented
an understanding of multiplicity that was not as a disorder.

An odd thing came up in the conversation, i don't know if it
is true or not - that Einstein was mult.

[pengke.livejournal.com]

I think there has been progress with the ideas from this side of the multiple community making their way into very clinical model support groups.

You're more likely to come across patients who understand that some or all of their symptoms are coming from the PTSD or their unresolved issues with abusive situations instead of the automatic assumption that everything stems from them having DID and will be resolved as soon as they stop being multiple. You see more DID patients who recognize that the others in their system are valid as individuals even if they still follow a host/alter set-up or if the host isn't quite capable of accepting the others as equals yet. You can even see DID patients that can't divorce their multiplicity from their mental illnesses and can't see their multiplicity as anything other than the product, marker, and essence of their abusive past believing in the possibility that one day they can be happy as a multiple.

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

Also - i have been finding about more and more mental health professionals
who take a similar positive view of the people in a multiple system. I think
we are making a difference, maybe not with the entrenched old school people,
but with the younger and more open minded people in the mental health field.

Note that we are being treated for PTSD and pointedly our therapist does not
diagnose us with DID. She works with us a lot on boundary issues inside and
out. Doing boundary work on the inside is about as radical as you can get in
contrast to the old integration and fusion model.

[cyanocitta.livejournal.com]

...Have I missed something? Is this an activism community in disguise? (No sarcasm here.)

[cyanocitta.livejournal.com]

All right, I just checked 'activism' in the dictionary to be sure, and that is really not... right. Pretend I said what I meant. :D

[vinik.livejournal.com]

Oops, missed this. Sorry, but we answered it anyway. :)

[vinik.livejournal.com]

No, it is just that there are people that see the Multiple community (not the lj community itself) as a movement.

[blindgod.livejournal.com]

I think progress can be made but people need to accept others. By saying this I mean that many multiples may only be aware of others in which communication in the system is not used. When they meet someone who normally communicates with their "system" then they tell them they are not multiple. Multiples who's littles may write different may be ridiculed for not writting like other littles and so on. The answer is to understand that different people function differently and what is normal to one or most isn't normal to all multiples.
It is a large movement and unfortunately not psychologists recognize multiples, so in the same way if the proffessionals don't recognize you guys then unfortunately the non-proffessionals will not recognize multiples.
Peace Richard Schultz.
(I am not a multiple).

[pengke.livejournal.com]

When he notes that he is not multiple, he is letting the reader know that he is coming to his position from a different point of view than we are.

When people support gay rights, there is often the assumption, especially amongst the opposition, that the supporter is gay. By announcing their heterosexuality, they are implicitly stating that gay rights are not an issue only for homosexuals.