(no subject)

[nat-leia.livejournal.com]

Why are people not getting multiples are people not personalities?

Is it because they don't know their own selves well?

~Chloe

Comments

[seaclans.livejournal.com]

A lot of different labels get used: alters, personalities, people/persons, selves. I/We probably use all of them fairly randomly.

I know that some psychologists believe that personalities are somehow not real. It's part of what they are taught about how to "deal" with a multi. I'm not sure why it is that people seem to think it's only possible to have one true person to a body, as if somehow anything else must be a error or impossibility or dysfunction. But it does seem to be a prevalent attitude.

Just try not to take it too personally if you can.

[phen0type.livejournal.com]

The Western cultural paradigm tends to call for one person per brain or body, and they are not culturally accustomed to having more than one consciousness reside within a body. Since psychiatrists focus on people who deviate from a cultural norm (whether the difference is truly problematic or not), then it would stand to reason that multiples would be treated as personalities because of the way our culture simply happens to be. It is saddening, yes, but it is the best explanation that I caan think up at the moment.

Richard
Fen Group

[rhymer-713.livejournal.com]

It makes me really angry. I'm sick of being called a personality. I'm not a personality. I'm a girl. Geez! Is that so hard...But once again, it is the culture. If you figure out a way for people to get it let us know.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Because that's the cultural image. People in Western society haven't been taught that more than one fully developed mind or person per body is possible. (Heck, even in a lot of other societies, if it's not contextualized into religious experience, it's still considered a sign that something isn't right.) A lot of people find it unnerving if they're not used to it.

Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde, and Jung's ideas about the five most common archetypes, sort of set an example for contextualizing multiplicity -- for people to get their head around the idea -- especially since Morton Prince's book. Both professionals and laypeople could assume that anyone who is more than one, must actually be one person who is behaving as different parts. (The other view was the spiritualistic one, where the people were seen as spirits who came to help -- or to mess things up. see survivalafterdeath.org for more on this.)

Since Birds' Nest/Lizzie and The 3 Faces of Eve, the parts or personalities idea been emphasized on tv, in the movies, and by all the professionals who've written books about multiplicity. So that's the way people tend to think of it. There are other books out now like When Rabbit Howls, where the narrator along with the reader discovers that the Troops think of themselves as persons, and behave like persons. I think you're going to see more of this as multiples write their own books and define their own experiences.

[lb-lee.livejournal.com]

The word 'person' implies a body or self-image visible to others. Alas, we are sorely lacking that department. We also lack seperate memories and handwriting; mannerism, voice, and language are all we have to go on. And with a name like 'multiple personality'... well, I think it's fairly understandable. Most the time, people we know use the two terms interchangeably.

--Writer

[forever-alone.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of them don't get it because they don't want to get it/don't want to think about it. It can be quite a sticky subject to contemplate.
C&V

[liliana-warsaw.livejournal.com]

Shall I take the unpopular point of view and point out that sometimes they are just personalities? It all depends on the multiple and how they define themselves. We've got both. People and some that are just personalities.

[forever-alone.livejournal.com]

How do you make the distinction?

[liliana-warsaw.livejournal.com]

If they define themselves as a person, they're a person. If it's just a facet of myself that's taken on a persona, it's a personality. In my case, anyway.

[forever-alone.livejournal.com]

How do you know if it's a facet of yourself and not a separate person? Is it just a matter of what they call themselves? This is something we've been struggling with, so we're curious to know how it works for others.

[liliana-warsaw.livejournal.com]

For me, it's a facet of me if it still feels like me, and not someone else. But it does also have to do with if they define themselves as their own person.

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

It works both ways -- if it is just facets or personalities, etc., they should be respected as that, as what they are, just as much as the individual persons should be respected for what they are.

[mirrorbrothers.livejournal.com]

Well, okay, here's the thing. "Personality" doesn't, most of the time, mean anything like "simple" or "one-dimensional." In other contexts, it gets modified by adjectives like "complex" or "strong." And really, I am a person, but I don't have my "own" body, or even my own brain. (Some folks do have their own personal fleshy bits, just not on Earth, but I don't.) Setting aside the soul, my personality is the only part of me that's left. In a pretty literal sense, I am a personality, and so is Rob, and the fleshy bits are communal.

The real killer is the idea that a personality, in defiance of apparent etymology, doesn't make a person. It seems clear to me that the personality is the critical part, again leaving aside the soul, but most people don't think that way. They think an "extra" personality in a body must be, say, a personification of self-doubt and insecurity, just because it, say, tends to crack jokes at the expense of the guy with the body's name. It's just this rank assumption, from what they're used to seeing - they think it's one body, one mind, one spirit, one person. Maybe if people were more religious or spiritual we'd have a better time - unless we got demoted to demonhood.

Johnny

[tej-agni.livejournal.com]

I say who cares what other people think. Sure yeah it's nice if people thought we were real, but not all people can get past seeing the one body and believing that only one person is allowed to use it. It can be hard for people outside of the experience to understand unless they experienced it themselves. If they believe it, wicked cool. If they are curious, we'll explain it. If they think I'm like a figment of some delusional persons imagination, wow neat! I can always tell them I think that only one person in one body is freaky too, or that they are one big personality themselves! I don't really care.
LeAnne
The Clique
Kasiyan Group

[cirape.livejournal.com]

You've got a personality, right? All people have a personality (joking aside).
I don't see what the difference is. Its just another term for the same thing.

[lb-lee.livejournal.com]

Agreed with you. We once had fun calling one of our uncloset buddies "the Molly Personality." We all got a good laugh out of it.

[nat-leia.livejournal.com]

Thanks for thoughts all. I appreciate.

~Chloe