Pluralpunk - Blog Posts
Dismantle the Expectation
I wasn't originally going to go through this this art, but I doodled it and thought the design was good, so I finished it. This is meant to mean that the community needs to stop placing so much emphasis and importance on origin, and that there shouldn't be an expectation to label your origin in the first place.
Even as someone who is pro-endogenic, I think it is important to say that the research done on DID, OSDD, and other trauma-based dissociative conditions is still valuable and important, even if you’re not a traumagenic system.
I’m not saying you need to be an expert or spend several hours reading so many books and peer-reviewed papers that you might as well have a PhD. I’m saying that having a basic grasp of concepts like C-PTSD, structural dissociation, and the core clinical models of trauma-based plurality will help you become a better ally to traumagenic systems, mixed-origin systems (like me), and traumatized endogenic systems.
I’ve noticed that some endogenic spaces have a tendency to either dismiss research on traumagenic systems as irrelevant or criticize it for not including endogenic experiences. But here’s the thing… that doesn’t mean the existing research is wrong. It’s just focused on a different population of people whose system formed because of trauma.
Research doesn’t extensively talk about endogenic or mixed-origin systems because those aren’t typically studied in a clinical (i.e., pathological) context. That doesn’t make our experiences less valid. It just means we exist outside the current research. And that’s okay. But it is still good to understand where traumagenic systems are coming from because not all of us are without trauma, and we need you as an ally. Especially if we want mutual respect and solidarity within plural spaces.
I think about this a lot because if endogenic spaces were a lot more like this a few years ago, I would’ve gotten support and found community a lot sooner. It has gotten a lot better since the last time I’ve been in plural spaces, but there is still more room to grow.
Ough wait a second....you're..."photogenic"? You need trauma to be a system, dumbass.
Do any other hosts (especially ones that tend to be front stuck) feel like they don’t have an identity at all? Like, I know that I’m not Shekel, and I know that I’m not Monty, or Tamm, or *insert the list of headmates I know about* but I don’t know what I am.
I want to make a flowchart for when I’m blurry but I’m usually fronting on some level and I don’t know how to make an “Am I Jay?” section when I feel like the leftover scraps of everyone else. I don’t know what I look like on the inside because I figure I look like the body even though I have no connection to it (seriously, the not recognizing ourself in the mirror is bad).
I’m just the default setting. I know I’m a guy because of crippling dysphoria, and I like various things, but I have no way to figure out my identity when so much of it is other people.