Hi and welcome.
If you are just joining, we Redwoods are many people in one body. We identify as multiple. There are millions of others like us. Many are isolated, but what community does exist uses lots of specific terms in circulation. Here are a few key definitions to get you started.
Multiple – many people, parts, alters, and or identities in one body.
adjective – “This is the Redwoods, they are multiple.”
noun – (less common) “She’s a multiple.” Could mean either one member of a system or the entire system.
See also Plural, Dissociative Identity Disorder, and Otherwise Specified Dissociative Disorder.
System – all of the people, parts or alters in one body. The group. The collective.
ie “The Redwoods all share one body. They are a multiple system.”
Parts and Alters and People –
All terms for the different members of a system. Usage is a matter of personal preference. Use the language that a given system or system member tells you they prefer. See also Identities, Headmates
Dissociative Identity Disorder –
Very frequently just DID, occasionally D.I.D.
The clinical disorder most associated with being multiple. 1 to 3% of the general world population is estimated to meet the criteria for dissociative identity disorder, according to the ISST-D.
What about multiple personality disorder (MPD)?
MPD was last listed in the DSM III. In the DSM IV it was replaced by DID.
Fronting
Describes which system member is “forward” in the body’s presence. “In the Redwoods, J is fronting right now, Z hasn’t been here in a while.” Fronting can describe who is speaking, or primarily experiencing the senses or active use of thinking or feeling. Co-fronting can describe two or more system members sharing some of these forms of presence simultaneously.
Co-consciousness
The ability of two or more members of a multiple system to communicate with each other by sharing thoughts, memories, sensations, or speaking out loud or writing and being able to simultaneously have another hear or see what the other is communicating.
Note: not all system members can front, and not all systems have co-consciousness. Co-consciousness is also on a spectrum, and can increase or decrease for a given system overtime.
Little, Littles
Describes the child-aged members of a multiple system. Many system members have distinct identities, including their own names and ages. The Redwoods include two young ones. The presence of littles is very common in multiple systems.
Plural
1. An umbrella term that includes all who are many elements of consciousness in one body. Some people specify that multiple features distinct recurring individual system members, like in the case of the Redwoods, and many well-known representations of multiples. Yet for a lot of systems there are so many parts (sometimes hundreds) that they don’t necessarily have distinct individuals, as much as patterns of clusters of parts. (See also polyfragmented). Plural acknowledges and unites the diverse ways of being “more than one” and can in theory include: DID, OSDD, multiples who experience themselves as post-DID or non-DID, tulpas, medians, and likely other experiences the public and Redwoods have not yet heard of.
2. An alternate term for multiple, since these are all common words, and there’s no centralized or monolithic community. Sometimes people are simply seeking to describe the fact of being many, multiple, plural, and use such terms interchangeably.
Multiplicity
The topic and general phenomenon at-large of multiples existing.
“Wow! I didn’t even know multiplicity was a thing? It’s so interesting!”
See Also Plurality
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What other terms have you seen that you’d like defined?
If you are familiar with this topic, what are key terms that people need to know?