h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

(continuing...)

I think names are very important - It's difficult for a personality to form a self-image of itself unless it has a name. I think they each chose them for themselves, but its hard to be sure - it was early in the process, so they weren't totally seperate at the time anyway. {and they aren't now, in any case}.

Here's another wild analogy - before I came to h2g2 I was rubbish at writing - I had been consistently told by my teachers that this was so, reinforced slightly by the self-image I got from my parents, and it was nothing I ever challenged. When I came to h2g2 I somehow discovered that I could write, and not too shabbily either. So, was I a good writer, who'd been fooled into thinking that I was bad? Or am I now a bad writer, who's been fooled into thinking (and hence acting) that I am good? The truth is that I had the potential to be both, and circumstances dictated which potential became reality.

A better example would be a case where neither state could be perceived as strictly better than the other. At parties, regardless of alcohol consumed, I am always much more outgoing than other occasions, but also more likely to try and selfishly dominate events. Which behaviour is real, and which is pretence created by social expectations? Neither - *ALL* behaviour is created by social expectation {with the exception of a few basic drives}, and if any of it is real, then it must all be real.

And so it is with multiplicity - I would suggest that many people have the potential to be multiple, and some actually are, and some are not. But it is no more the case that multiples are *actually* single than that singles are *actually* multiple who have collectively decided to cover up their multiplicity. There is the potential for both - the human brain is a multi-splendorous thing.

I agree that the potential, I even would call it intelligence, gives each individual the opportunity to choose from what society has to offer. Some take the normal way, some take a more challenging and different way to *their* lifes. So we have something in common here.

One question I often get asked is:
"How can you love more then one person at the same time?"

And my answer is:
"The ones I love are very individual and special to me, I think I handle them in different regions of my brain".

It just occured to me that this is somehow connected to our topic. Did you ever experience that one of your alters is drawn towards someone, and maybe the other alters are not? How would you handle such a situation?

Easy answer which took a long time in coming since I got distracted...

yeah, I guess. Lucinda is the only me which is at all that way interested, the rest of us are fairly asexual. But friends tend to vary some - there are often people who one of us likes, and another doesn't. Not hugely, in general. So it's never really arisen, in answer to your question - and I don't have a clue how I *would* handle it... badly, no doubt.

-Martin

Can I draw the conclusion that an alter is not always complete, e.g. in that she/he does not want a partner of the appropriate sex?

Interesting that your only alter which is interested is of the opposite sex. 80% of my personal interests and problems would be nil. You must have a peaceful life!

Lots of people don't want a partner of the appropriate (or any) sex. Some because of careers. Some because they find it too much hassle. Some because such things just don't interest them. Some because they haven't found anyone to match their high standards. Doesn't make them incomplete as people. Sex isn't everything.

But yes, not all alters are 'complete': the usual name for those which aren't is "fragment". Some people with DID have groups of alters which are only understandable as a group - so they are only 'complete' collectively, rather than individually. You didn't expect the mind to make things easy to count and categorise, did you?

You do read a little too much into my words, though - I said the rest of us are 'fairly asexual' - not *completely* asexual!

Is it possible that an alter dies?

apologies for the delay. I was.... unavoidably detained...

It's certainly possible that an alter ceased to exist. I have only one such - 'Luke Rhinehart' - though he was more stillborn in a way. What might have become a part of me ceased to be a potential part of me.

Whether you call that death, and whether there's something more death-like which has happened to other multiples, I can't tell you. Some multiples say that they've had alters merging together or splitting, some even breeding, and dieing. Can't vouch for what other people say, though, can I?

Well, same for me!

Ok, merging personalities might be reasonable, but death? Death is forced upon life, it does not happen by free will. Even if you commit suicide, death occurs by a external force, which is initiated by the suicide person, but takes its own course.

Well, to an alter, other alters can be experienced as external. But in any case it's more comparable to 'brain death' than normal death.

Shrug, you mean that some alters kill one alter? Well, I don't take that!

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Wonko' to 'Discussions Relating to the Lifetime Ban of Arpeggio'.

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