Hey everyone
I'd like to have a serious, respectful discussion about the topic of "pluralty" or "headmates" which is making the rounds again, I suppose largely in part to the alterhuman idea of including everything under an "umbrella".
What we do know is that there are two psychiatric/psychological conditions which can cause this, one is schizophrenia and the other is DID which is recognized as resulting from a severe degree of trauma.
Here comes the tough part that's easy to misconstrue...
Here on TG, we've had a small number of individuals who have laid claim to experiencing disassociative identity, who have been very genuine and have sought treatment to cope with or manage the disassociation.
We've also undergone, at various times, a trend of young people who come here in spurts and use "headmates" or being plural as an excuse for poor behavior or as a method to try and dodge accountability for their actions. One of these people was actually a sexual predator who tried to say he wasn't in his headspace at the time or... something...
So, to me and to many others, pluralty is something which requires treatment when it is, in fact, something
actually experienced. Why is this being glorified by the alterhuman community? My suspicion is that alterhuman stems from Tumblr and that Tumblr basically turned mental illness into something trendy.
Why should we accept anyone's claims of "pluralty" without a professional diagnosis or history of treatment when, as said, it can and has been used as an excuse or simply as an added "special" factor.
I'm not here to say that no one experiences disassociation because there are some who clearly do but what are some indicators we can use to gague what's a genuine experience and what's utter bullshit?
Should an animal identity that's a result of DID be considered therianthopy or is it more akin to copinglink due to being a result of trauma?
Again, not saying that all claims of DID, pluralty, headmates or schizophrenia are fraudulent. Based on my experience, observation and analysis of animal communities over the past 24 years, I believe that most are. This is a concept that was unheard of prior to Tumblr in the circles I was part of.
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DustWolf
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BearX
How common was it on AHWW?
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elinox
Was it common among the older otherkin communities?
In the interest of fairness, is this something that could have root in spiritual beliefs or practice?
Am I missing something? If so, please enlighten me. I'm not attacking plurality. I'm trying to arrive at a reasonable conclusion based on information.
Lyc