Star & The Rats

Basic Terminology

Subpersonalities: Semi-autonomous aspects of your psyche.

Parts: Synonymous with subpersonalities.

States: Situation-specific ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Modes: States we can shift into.

Masks: States concealing your true self to uphold or fulfill expected social norms.

Facet: An aspect of a broader personality

Self: The whole, unified psyche or personality

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Experiences

Polymind

Mind: An individual in a polymind. May be swapped with modes, states, parts, subpersonalities, etc.

The Self/Collective Self: An identity that represents the minds as a whole. Follows the default definition of the self in psychology.

IFS

Parts: Subpersonalities with very specific roles

The Self: The core/center of a person. A very specific label that looks at the self through specific traits or qualities separate from the other parts.

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Conclusion: IFS is a therapeutic model and polymind describes the experience of interacting with subpersonalities as individuals or separate identities.

IFS gives parts very specific roles and aims to separate, or unblend, the self from these parts, while minds behave as separate individuals or have their own identities, but together make up the self.

Minds can be parts in IFS and someone who is practicing IFS could also adopt the Polymind label since it is treating the mind as multiple parts that come from, or influence, the "self". But, the "self" has two different definitions between the two. This may be a very important distinction for some and would likely also influence IFS and require some modification to the original model since the self has a very specific role in IFS.

Note: Because the "self" is abstract the term may mean very different things between polyminds and some may not follow the original term's definition.

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Plural/Multiple

Headmate: An individual in a system or collective

Host: An individual who is most active, has the most responsibilities, has greater external influence, or they have more external relationships than other members.

Core: An individual with a direct connection to the body's sense of self (May refer to the current self or the original unified self prior to systemhood. Some plurals/multiples may not have a core)

Original: The body's original unified self, or the very first recognized member of the collective or system. (Some plurals/multiples may not recognize an original)

Fragment: A part that usually does not possess full autonomy and/or an identity. May be composed of a singular aspect, and holds specific things like emotions and memories. May only fulfill a single, specific role or job.

Median

Facet/Aspect: Identity states that are often less defined or separate.

Core: A unified identity. This core may be composed of a single identity that has multiple facets or states.

(Some median systems may not identify with a singular core identity and in these cases where there is no singular identity median systems may forgo the term "core" entirely.)

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CDD

Alter: A dissociative part in a CDD system. An "alternate identity"/distinct personality or identity state.

Part:

a. Synonymous with Alter

b. A "part" of the whole system, or a part of the original identity

c. refers to apparently normal parts (ANPs), emotional parts (EPs), and other classifications (like child parts)

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Classification

Polymind: Non-Medical, self-identifying label

IFS: Medical, Therapeutic model

Plurality: Non-medical, self-identifying label

Multiple: Medical and non-medical, self-identifying label

Median: Non-Medical, self-identifying label

CDD: Medical, diagnosis

Community Identity

Polymind: Neither singlet nor plural (but plural is an opt-in label)

IFS: Multiple (my own understanding from the "multiplicity of the mind" theory that IFS comes from)

Plural: Plural

Median: In-between multiple/plural and singlet.

CDD: Multiple or Plural

Structure

Polymind: Subpersonalities/ system (not all polyminds view themselves as a system)

IFS: Subpersonality system

Plural: Collective or system (or any other preffered grouping language)

Median: System

CDD: Dissociative system

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Conclusion: Polyminds and IFS focuses on subpersonalities, Polymindence can be viewed as either a normal singlet or plural experience, so instead of choosing one or the other a polymind may opt-in to either label if they feel it fits, or go without. Also due to many polyminds being familiar with or coming from CDD/Plural spaces the communities may share similar culture and online footprints to eachother. Similarly while many polyminds do not see themselves as systems, they are typically referring specifically to not being a CDD system in these instances. A polymind could function as a system similarly to how IFS has parts function as a system together.

All of these experiences look very, very similar at first glance. Terminology overlaps and terms can have similar but slightly different meanings. It can be incredibly hard to keep it all straight and mistakes will inevitably be made. Especially when the overwhelming different ways plurality and parts can present are added to the equation. The multitude of beliefs within each community can also blur hard lines and some things feel optional rather than necessary. A "core" explanation of what each experience is becomes increasingly hard to find and makes seeing and understanding differences a lot harder. But, hopefully, this post can help others like it has helped me to keep things a little tidier when looking for differences.

I hesitate on adding this in case it isn't needed, but here's a lazily made V2 of the visualized analogy that might be simpler to grasp than V1. It's a little too physical for my liking but it gets the point across.