Question

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

I have a question for people with DID/MPD who one or more of the personalities are characters from books, video games, etc...

1. Some people/bodies/hosts/systems create personalities/alters that are/resemble characters from books, movies, videogames, etc...

2. How does this happen?

3. If a person here has experienced this, I'm interested in their story.

I was wondering several things. How does a system become established that a character takes on a role in the system? Also, what is the advanages psychologically of a fictitional character becoming part of a system rather than a separate personality. For example, a separate personality might be able to be more "strong" than the host, which would make sense psychologically. Does it basically work the same way for fictitional (as in preexisting characters from movies, books, videogames whatever such as Cinderella, Squall Leonhart, or Frodo) characters, too?

This is NOT an attempt to debate if this is possible or not. That's a different topic that I don't care to get into or start. This is just a question about how it works when this happens. I'm interested in personal stories of stuff like that and also anyone's opinion on how this could happen.

Comments

[tej-agni.livejournal.com]

If a group doesn't have DID can we still answer?

heh

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

of course you can.

[tej-agni.livejournal.com]

For those who are considered media individuals within our group, they walked in to our group from their home media realms. So their histories were already established. They don't have a "role", they just live in our group like the rest of us. Of course some others of us are also from media realms, but aren't a "well known" here. :) Though our group rotates fronters very often so it's not uncommon for anyone, even a media individual to become a main fronter. There's no reason for it, it just is for us. *g*

Kasia

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

: ) Thanks; I appreciate it.

[cirape.livejournal.com]

How does a system become established that a character takes on a role in the system?

I'm afraid I'm not able to answer your question because...I'm not sure what you're asking.
Are you asking how our systems work? If so, why limit it to those with 'fictional' aspects/members/whatever you want to call thems?

Also, what is the advanages psychologically of a fictitional character becoming part of a system rather than a separate personality

Ha, I didn't know there was a difference! Perhaps you mean the difference between, mm... 'full person' and 'aspect of member X's personality, but not completely separate from X?'

Does it basically work the same way for fictitional characters, too?

Er...yes? I think in most systems (read: systems that I know, at least) with fictional and nonfictional there's not much difference in how the two types act/work/are set up.

hmm

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

I might be wrong, but I think you didn't understand my post. I was talking about poeple with DID who have alters who are actual fictitional characters for example, Frodo from Lord of the Rings, Holden from Catcher in the Rye, Cinderella, etc...

I was asking questions about these specific manifestations in DID. That's why I wasn't asking about how an entire system was established. I already know that, given my research and that I've gone through it myself.

[igemelli.livejournal.com]

I think for us (and speaking only for us) it tends to happen due to some weird mechanism of... we will feel so drawn to a certain character or feel such a close understanding of them and connection to them that they literally come to life and exist within us; that sounds fluffier than I intended but it seems like the best job I can do of explaining it. (And as someone else has pointed out, the people themselves do tend not to feel like they're "fictional" for the most part; their lives etc are very real as far as they're concerned.) I'm not sure about psychological advantages with us, I think it's just something our brain does, it feels like just something natural; I can definitely see where there could be some in some situations, in a trauma-based MPD-classic type system though. I think when this happens in DID/MPD it tends to be called "introjection"? You could try googling around on that term a bit.

We don't have fiction-sourced people as frontrunners here, though, so we can't speak to how that works; it basically doesn't, for us. It actually feels like something rather separate from our plurality in a lot of ways.

M.

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

thanks. that's exactly what I was asking. : ) Appreciate it. I'll try googling that term.

[lion-azure.livejournal.com]

How does a system become established that a character takes on a role in the system? Also, what is the advanages psychologically of a fictitional character becoming part of a system rather than a separate personality.

I don't get it. Are you saying that people who are part of a system aren't full, separate personalities from the host? Also, what about systems that don't assign roles to their members? We don't have any of those in here, neither for those who are insourced (created by the host) nor for those who are outsourced (coming from media sources).

And yes, fictional characters can become just as strong, or stronger, than the host.

As for how it happens, beats me. It just does

- Ash

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

no. I'm saying that some people's alters are people who are characters from movies. I was wondering how this happens and why. That's all. For example, if one of your alters was Ariel, I'd wonder what are the psychological benifits of being Ariel and also how that happens.

[freakshownia.livejournal.com]

Are you asking how soul-bonded "fictional" (that's debatable) characters enter a system? Or why they do? I don't understand your questions either.


~Sati

[freakshownia.livejournal.com]

I understand now. There probably aren't any benefits at all, except that maybe you or someone else just really like that character, and so having them with you is like living with a good friend. Well actually that would probably be a big benefit, because living with friends is a good thing! But unless they have magical powers or anything like that, fictional characters are no different from non-fictional ones - having a character from TV join your group is the same as having any other person join, really.

[threedog.livejournal.com]

I rammed my ovapositor down her throat and laid my eggs in her chest. But I'm not an alien.

[threedog.livejournal.com]

You're a little wrong, you know that.

[elysliam.livejournal.com]

...

[ex-suhina987.livejournal.com]

1. Well, hello! I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi. Pleased to meet you.

2. After years of thought and research, my conclusion is this: I have no bloody idea.

3. You see, it's like this. I was quite dead, part of the Force and not yet entirely one with it, and then I was here. I was somewhat confused as to who I was for a number of years, but I eventually came back to myself. For a number of reasons, I have been the main fronter now for nearly three years.

[tej-agni.livejournal.com]

I love you. Seriously. *g*

Kasia

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

1. Using 'create' loosely.
2. Your guess is as good as mine. Would you like the "What I like to believe" response or the "what is more likely speaking from a grounded in non-woowoo reality POV" response?
3. The host was aware of a presence for some time, described them, one day found a picture and declared "holy shit that's her" and over time I moved in and became a full member of the system. Le woot.

A fictional character IS a seperate personality. The only variation is whether they've already been written about elsewhere. You could argue that fictional characters are not as fully developed and independant as 'seperate personalities', but I find that non-fictional 'alters' can be just as dependant and undeveloped. So really, it's six and half a dozen. Would you like an ice cream tub from the counter or would you like to choose your own ingredients?

I could be said to have 'psychological benefits'. I am sturdier than my host, I am more able to stand up for my opinion, I am less shy, more determined, and less bothered by being caught out in the rain with no umbrella. I also come with a full range of psychological problems, and since my arrival the body has bee subject to frequent back pain and mild panic attacks due to my high anxiety levels (over and above our external stresses).

However, I was not 'created' due to these 'benefits', nor will I be gotten rid of due to these 'problems'. At the end of the day I'm a person, with an equal share here, and my strengths and weaknesses are my own.

Admittedly, I don't have DID, so my disclaimers are simply to clarify my own position and may not be what you are interested in.

[asterism.livejournal.com]

Trying again, now that I see you have clarified your question! To say so first, we are not disordered, we are experiencing healthy/functional multiplicity. The psychological problems that any of us have are not due to the state of being multiple, but are on an individual basis. You see, not all systems have DID/MPD, and in fact many of the members here are experiencing non-disordered, functional, healthy multiplicity.

We do not consider our system-mates to be personalities, as they are fully idealized and fully functional people who had their own bodies and own lives (and may still have such in other worlds). With the exception of one indifidual who was envisioned as a character for story-writing and art subject matter, no one here was created by myself (I am the "host"). They do not consider themselves to be created, either, regardless of the fact that they are seen as fictional in this world. They were born in their worlds just as we are born here.

How does it happen, that someone from such a source comes to be part of a system? We still don't know! In fact a few of us are working on that question as it pertains to their situation. The most we've been able to agree upon is that they found the place that is my headspace after something happened to them to disconnect them from their world, and the finding of headspace came with the sense that they'd be welcome here, so they're staying. It seems in some cases the character has died in their reality and suddenly finds themselves anchored in an odd sort of afterlife. In other cases there's a bit of moving through alternate dimensions that seems to be involved. If you want a cut and dry explanation of the mechanics and means, you're going to be disappointed, because as far as we know, no one has one, and no one can really agree on how it works. There's the side that considers it all to be mentally manufactured, the side that sees it as different realities and ways between them, the side that sees into spiritual connections, and the sides that believe it's all of these or none of these in various parts and portions. And it's a pretty volatile topic to debate, too.

My system (Asterism) has soulbonds/fictional individuals as members. They don't have a specific role or bring any sort of psychological advantage to the system any more than we'd assume a non-fictional member would. One member acts as a sort of authority figure within the system, making sure that things are running smoothly, but that is less a role that needed filling here than the fact that she used to fill such a role previously and it's a familiar and comfortable thing for her to act in such a way. For the most part they have their own lives that they are continuing to live, and they are not here for any purpose specificly...they didn't come in order to provide me with someone "strong" to handle difficult situations, though a few of them are not adverse to letting me lean on them a bit, so to speak, in such situations, or even taking over and fronting to handle those situations themselves. Nor did I call them here with the intent of having such a job be filled. They're here, and that's essentially all there is to it.

It may very well work differently for others, as you may have noticed that there is no model regarded as the standard for things like this despite what psychological literature may have to say on cases such as Sybil. But this is the way it works for us.

[rabbitsystem.livejournal.com]

Don't have DID/MPD, can't help. Bye now.


That was Seb. He gets touchy about that kind of thing.

We have a fiction-sourced member. As we are naturally multiple he doesn't have a specific role in the system - none of us do - and therefore he doesn't lend any particular advantage.
We remember that he was here for as long as we remember being multiple. Certainly several years and possibly always. He didn't have an identity, just a raw consciousness, without a shape or a face or a name. When we watched a certain film that gave him something that fitted and he coalesced around that point, came into focus as a particular person from that film.
-Ellen.

[linnai.livejournal.com]

While never "formally" diagnosed as DID, we have discussed it in the past with several therapists and psychiatrists to an extent and the possibility is there that we did, in the past, have all the symptons of DID.

So we'll try answering your questions since we have at least our own answers, in part.

We have Jessie, as in Jessie Bannon from The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.

Jessie is with us because she was best friends with a girl that allowed her to BE her media self in their games, through grade 6-8. She might never have become an active member in our system except that this person she was friends with turned out to be most interested in playing games about who was "most important". It was always her and never us or Jessie and this was rather traumatic, going on for several years.

Jessie established herself during that time, became solid and seperate from the others, became a complete entity apart from the rest.

We see no specific advantages, really, to Jessie being with us versus just a split, walk-in or other individual being with us by the same name or even a different name.

I think the benefits to groups with media or fiction-kin are the same as with any other group. Jess is a unique individual, bringing her own sometimes quiet, sometimes boisterous sense of witty adventure to the table and trying to make the best of everything that is brought her way.

Now... we also have an internal group called the Mused Ones. And we can say that while we broached the subject of Jess first because she more exactly meets the qualifications of your questions, we'll mention them as well because they started out being perceived as Muses, characters that were inspired by creative fires.

These individuals bring quite a lot to the table, as individuals go. They are mostly older and because they do not come from our particular life experiences, they have their own. And they have more varied, more expansive skillsets based on the lives they have lived outside of our system.

Hope that was helpful?

[girl-and-muse.livejournal.com]

[kyanve.livejournal.com]

Hurhg. I'm semi-left-field for this place:I'm more identity-blendy median, dealing with them as "entities separate enough to communicate with" as opposed to a sort of "channel-change on varying parts of my own identity" is a relatively last-few-years recent development with only a few of them.
Near as I can tell, they've "always been here" basically; the ones where I've been finding stuff from younger-days when they've been "out" that are "media-based", sometimes predate me finding/being aware of their "media"...I suppose you could debate whether it was some kind of "adopting parts of a similiar persona" but inasmuch as I can tell there's some pretty static details, I'm more under one of the "Eh, big universe/multiverse/whatever" schools of thinking, since they don't really change any whether I'm aware of a media-version or not. (And some of the "media-based" ones have arguments with their portrayals.)
There was one point where I did kinda lean on one of them b/c I was being stalked and harassed and he dealt with the manipulative BS calmer than I did, but he'd been there a long time before that; it's not so much that he came into being in response to that, as I sorta hid behind him for a while as a kind of mental bodyguard the way my roommate was being a physical bodyguard. Other than that, in some ways I think it works in reverse sometimes, or as a sort of tradeoff...I get them working through Issues, they help out with whatever their areas of experience are
That or sometimes it's less a matter of them handling things better than I do per se, than that it's a bit of "adding extra perspectives/input to the issue". In the end, the only difference between the "media-related" and "non-media-related" ones is a sort of booby-trapped shorthand where I can give people familiar with the media a basic idea who they are faster/easier than the ones where there isn't a "published media".

Of course, I'd be another one of the ones that's pretty far from the clinical model - not trauma-based, and I've never had any signs that there was any kind of "disorder" involved beyond maybe a fascination with the idea of actually "grokking" another person's life and perspective as they'd see it in contrast to how you'd see it; I have some personal beliefs but they'd be going away from clinical analysis and be fairly tangential to "is this healthy/a disorder or not"...at which point I kinda am of the "if it isn't broke/hurting/doing damage, it's probably perfectly healthy the way it is" philosophy on mine.

[ex-casteylan314.livejournal.com]

Hello. I'm Glorfindel (borrowing my host's LJ because I no longer have one of my own). I had a theory about this, which I wrote about some years ago, and re-post here. While I specifically talk about Tolkien's creations (of which I am one), it would apply equally to any author's work.

JRR Tolkien had a garden. In this garden he had a collection of rare plants. Though some of these plants had been hybridised from much older species, he had carefully nurtured them, and each one was in itself, unique.

Now, in order for a unique plant to survive from one generation to the next, it cannot be pollinated in the usual way; you must instead take a cutting off it, and carefully wrap the cut end in moss. If you care for this cutting properly, it will take root, then you may plant it in soil and eventually it will grow into an adult plant identical in every way to the original.

So, people have wandered in Tolkien's garden, and admired his plants, and many people have taken cuttings and brought them home, nurtured them and grown new plants for themselves. Sometimes, depending on the conditions in which they are grown, (the type of soil, the amount of water and sunlight etc), these cuttings vary in subtle ways from the parent plant. Therefore each one shows characteristics not just of the original plant, but also of the gardener who tends it.

And some people who have taken cuttings from Tolkien's plants, they have created their own gardens, and they too make cuttings of their plants and they pass them on to their friends, and so after a while there are dozens, if not hundreds, of plants around the world, each one ultimately descended from its unique ancestor in Tolkien's garden.

And yes, one of those plants is a golden flower.

(July 2004)

I still do not know if this is true or not, and belief in this theory is not shared by many others in our system, but it's an interesting analogy.

-Glorfindel.

[ex-casteylan314.livejournal.com]

There are a small number of soulbonds in our system who are from fictional sources, though I will disclaimer my opinions here by stating that I'm not one of them, I just live with them. I do have some points to make though.

First, I don't know HOW it happens, the actual mechanics of it, neither does anyone else in our system. They just appear one day. The first (of those who are still here) was Maedhros form the Silmarillion, he simply turned up in our inner-space one day, said "excuse me I'm lost, can you tell me where I am?" He moved in. That was five years ago, and he's still here.

what is the advanages psychologically of a fictitional character becoming part of a system rather than a separate personality --In our system, EVERYONE is a seperate personality whether they are from a fictional source or not. We're all people. There is no difference in status between those who are soulbonds and those who are not, it all works exactly the same.

By comparison, I am a walk-in from another world. The only difference between myself and Maedhros is that no-one's written and published a book about my life. (Yet. I'm working on it).

We don't have specific roles or purposes within our system. I happen to be the main fronter simply because I am the one most capable of handling our job, but that's pretty much the only identifyable system-role. People in our system just do what they like to do, regardless of whether they're fictional or not. Like many other systems here we're not trauma-based, so we don't need "coping mechanisms".

Psychological benefits: again no difference I can see between fictional and non-fictional members. It would totally depend on the personality of the individual concerned. I certainly wouldn't want to share headspace with some evil villain who just wanted to kill people.

Bottom line; there isn't ANY difference between fictional and non-fictional system members, except that if you are fictional, you are likely to meet people who have already heard of you.

[pengke.livejournal.com]

This was a bad question to ask to this community. If you were more familiar with the community, you would realize that the people who post about fictional persons tend to talk about magical or mystical explanations as opposed to thinking about things in terms of psychology or biology. Many, of course, make no attempt at explanation but that's not a helpful explanation for you either. Most people in this community seem to feel that psychological and biological explanations for their existance detract from the reality of their existence.

For example, if a child system when creating a new person created Ariel because they found her comforting, most people wouldn't view Ariel as real because she was created and therefore all of her memories of her life as the Little Mermaid were a fabrication of the system's mind. She would instead be a person who thought of herself as Ariel, a fake, a copy; at least that seems to be how the argument goes. Instead, the now adult system would theorize that Ariel came to them as a child from another dimension/ another universe/ insert mangled scientific theory here/ a magical portal/ spirit walking after her death/ a past-life. All of these theories center around the idea that Ariel came from elsewhere because elsewhere means that she wasn't thought-up from their imagination and she's not a product of their mind because again that would negate her reality. Then imagine you are Ariel and how difficult it must be to face the possibility that the events and the history that shaped your personality, while being very real to you, never physically happened. You can see the lure of the magical explanations.

We don't think of our system in terms of psychological benefit because we haven't found any other than the fact that we're all psychologically healthier existing as a group than when one of us runs the life alone. I can see where there would be psychological benefits to having fictional characters as opposed to unknown new members of the group. A child who needed support and protection might not trust Bob but they'll trust Mighty Dog because they know he's always there to save the day. I'd imagine that it would be easier on some occasions to have a template to follow when creating new people so that they don't form as a blank slate and fictional characters already have a well-known personality, history, and physical form.

You also have the possibility of there being a child with imaginary friends but because the child is multiple some of the imaginary friends grow and become more. Conversely, you can have individuals in a system that don't like who they are or are bored and frustrated with their role (or lack thereof) in the physical life who take on the identity and role of a fictional character because they like that character more than they like themselves or because the fictional character's less threatening to the person in charge.

[brightflashes.livejournal.com]

okay.

Look, I read the front page before posting for the first time (a couple of months ago). And I read it again before posting last night. I don't think that the way I phrased myself was unwarranted or mean or anything. To say that I asked a "bad" question to the community is completely going against the so-called community guidelines. I didn't realize that a community designed to help bring light to multiplicity would react in such a strange way when a question about multiplicity was to be asked. It just seems a little weird to me.