Aeth / Aetheria

But first, some background, and a vocabulary lesson

What is this post about?

This post is a PSA to spread awareness on the topic of endogenic systems and the Empowered Multiples Movement. This post is strictly against their ideals and is an in-depth explanation of how people in these movements came to be that way, why their actions are harmful to people with dissociative disorders, and what you can do to prevent their ideology from spreading and harming others.

What's the vocabulary we need to know? And what is a dissociative disorder?

A dissociative disorder is a disorder caused in the developmental stages of a child's life (ages around 4-10 years old, sometimes younger) where the brain develops personality. It is exclusively caused by trauma being inflicted on the child that causes them to dissociate to help them tolerate the trauma or memories of the trauma.

It is a covert disorder, which means it hides its symptoms from its holder, making it difficult for many people to recognize that they are systems or seek help on the matter.

(To clarify, this definition is for complex dissociative disorders, and does not include dp/dr or those under that umbrella)

And some vocab...

System A broad term to refer to someone who claims to have multiple personality states. Despite originally being medical terminology, this term has been stolen by endogenic people.

Singlet A term to refer to those without dissociative disorders, whose minds present as one connected personality state without dissociative barriers. The average person is this way.

pwCDD Stands for 'person with a complex dissociative disorder' or 'people with complex dissociative disorders'. Refers to anyone who presents as having a dissociative disorder.

Traumagenic A term for systems who claims to have their system or personality states borne from trauma. This term has been forced upon people with CDDs in order to differentiate themselves from endogenic systems.

Endogenic An umbrella term for someone who claims to not have their system or personality states borne from trauma, but from some other reason. Some additions in this umbrella include willogenic, tulpagenic, etc.

Final Fusion A term to refer to when a pwCDD has their final two personality states merge with each other to create one distinct personality state without dissociative or memory barriers, after intensive therapy and cooperation to integrate these states and remove barriers. While not every system wants to have final fusion, it is generally considered a good thing to look towards and a sign of recovery.

But how do we know that endogenic systems are not real or connected to pwCDDs?

TLDR: Because all psychiatric evidence points against the correlation of endogenic systems and dissociative systems, and there is not much information or proper studies about them existing at all.

The criteria for dissociative identity disorder (DID), the most well known dissociative disorder, is as follows (according to the DSM-5):

The existence of two or more distinct identities (or “personality states”).

The distinct identities are accompanied by changes in behavior, memory and thinking.

The signs and symptoms may be observed by others or reported by the individual. Ongoing gaps in memory about everyday events, personal information and/or past traumatic events.

The symptoms cause significant distress or problems in social, occupational or other areas of functioning.

In addition, the disturbance must not be a normal part of a broadly accepted cultural or religious practice. As noted in the DSM-5-TR1, in many cultures around the world, experiences of being possessed are a normal part of spiritual practice and are not dissociative disorders.

The above statement says it all. Endogenic systems could be considered disturbances created by cultural (see: endo spaces online) or religious (see: the theft of tulpamancy and creation of 'tulpagenic' by endogenic systems online) practices. They do not classify as dissociative disorders and therefore should stay out of areas intended for pwCDDs, and not use the medical terminology for those people.

Why are endogenic systems harmful?

TLDR: Because endogenic systems steal medical terminology and prevent real systems from discovering themselves and seeking help, as well as show an incorrect and romanticized view of dissociative disorders

Endogenic systems break into system spaces by taking medical terminology like 'parts', 'system', 'alters', 'personalities', 'inner world/mindscape', 'fragment', 'persecutor', the list goes on. Endogenic systems take these terms and often misinterpret them, because all of these terms can only manifest in a person if they are a pwCDD who has experienced trauma in their childhood.

Additionally, endogenic systems often spread ideology in their spaces that pertains to hiding or ignoring specific parts of this identity to pwCDDs; an example is how endogenic systems are often against people looking into therapy or recovery, or the idea of final fusion, because endogenic systems do not see dissociative disorders as a DISSOCIATIVE disorder, but as an ALTER disorder (i.e they only care for representing the symptom of having other people in their brain). An alter has no reason to exist if not to protect oneself from trauma... and if you don't have trauma that formed your system, it's impossible to form one.

Endogenic systems often romanticize this idea of being a system: they want to have 'friends in their head' who 'help them with tasks', but are unwilling to accept or acknowledge the other symptoms that often come with being a system, like strong dissociation, memory loss, anxiety, delusions, suicidal and self harm ideation, chronic nightmares, chronic headaches/migraines/stomachaches, and more.

This creates not only a misrepresentation of CDDs to pwCDDs, but also to other people online witnessing it, which makes people take the disorder less seriously. An example might be back in 2020 when lots of people on TikTok were faking DID: when people hear the word, they think of people listing their alters and not representing any of the grittier symptoms, and are less likely to listen to these traumatized people because of this recollection of endogenic systems.

All of this combined leads back to the Empowered Multiples Movement, where the idea of endogenic systems started.

Wait, what's the 'Empowered Multiplicity Movement'?

TLDR: it's a movement from the 1990s-2000s that spawned the idea of endogenic systems and advocated for the removal of DID from medical spaces and the DSM-5

Endogenic systems have had a history stretching back to the 1960s where their term was coined by Sigmund Freud (here it was not referring to this idea of systems, but it is the first known mention of the word 'endogenic' in history).

30 or 40 years after the fact, 'Empowered Multiples' began to show up online, where a few select people began to use the term 'endogenic' to refer to themselves as systems without dissociative disorders.

They also advocated for the removal of DID (or, at the time, MPD) from the DSM, said that those who identified with the term DID or CDD labels were inferior and faking, and would encourage people to write papers and articles against the idea of DID and boycott the term online. They specifically used the term 'natural' to refer to being a system.

It's important to know that this was not a movement borne from love. This movement is, palpably, born from the hatred and purposeful stigmatization of people with DID. The people who spawned the term likely never had system experiences or even fully considered themselves true systems, but did this to hurt people who did.

Why should I, a singlet, care?

Because your care (and reblog/share) can help spread this message to those who need it, and let pwCDDs know that they are safe around you/that you won't tolerate ableism.

Those who have experienced dissociative symptoms, but have never cared to seek out more information or a diagnosis because of the misinformation spread by endogenics, could find this post helpful and end up discovering more about themselves, improving their quality of life significantly. If that's you, and you've been relating to the experiences presented here, I highly recommend you look into scholarly/medical sources and look around CDD spaces for more information.

Why should I, an endogenic system, denounce that title?

Because your title is inherently born from the idea that systems are a fake disorder to make fun of, disrespect, misrepresent, and stigmatize.

If you are experiencing symptoms of a CDD, you should look into medical/scholarly sources for more information. You should not fall for the idea that your trauma was "not enough" for you to be a system. You should not fall for the idea that you didn't "have" trauma. Even if you can't remember your trauma, if you experience symptoms of a CDD, you should look into that more deeply. It may help save your life in the future, or improve your quality of life.

For those of you who are endogenic not because you experience symptoms, but because you want to be, I highly recommend you rethink that idea and look into subjects like kinning, alterhumanity, otherkin, fictionkin, etc., all of which are terms for non-disordered people who might have similar (but not the same) experiences as pwCDDs.

Thank you for reading

And a reminder to please reblog if you found this helpful or informative. Let your disordered friends know that they are loved and welcomed in your community without the stigma spread from endogenics being forced onto them.