#inoperable original

Perspective Prefixes

Fore- (front) To refer to the front, the state of being in control of the body, the state of feeling as if the body is an extension of yourself

Retro- (back) To refer to “backseating” or coconscious, the state of being conscious of the body’s experiences but not controlling the body, the state of the body not being a direct extension of yourself but still acting as a vehicle for your consciousness

En- (in) To refer to headspace or complete lack of fronting, the state of being unaware of the body’s senses or experiences or the state of not actively being (in the case of people without headspaces)

Selection Suffixes

-linear A linear timeline of memories across and exclusive to the given perspective despite changes in who occupies that perspective. (Ex: A forelinear system would be a system that can recall what happens in the front from the perspective of being in control of the body/being the body across different fronters, but would rarely or never recall memories from the perspective of not being in control of the body/being a disembodied voice or presence in headspace)

-branched A timeline of memories across a given perspective despite changes in who occupies that state and that is not exclusive to that state. (Ex: A forebranched system would be a system would be a system that can recall what happens in the front from the perspective of being in control of the body/being the body across different fronters, but would also be capable of recalling memories from the perspective of not being in control of the body/being a disembodied voice or being a presence in headspace)

-permeable When memories in the given perspective can be recalled across different occupants of that perspective, but only with difficulty. (Ex: A forepermeable member would be a member that can recall what different members experienced in front, but only with more effort than would be used to recall a memory that they were fronting for)

-vided (as in “divided”) Memories in from the given perspective are separated or blocked between headmates (ex: A forevided system’s members wouldn’t be able to remember what others did while fronting, mostly synonymous with having high amnesia barriers but specifically refers to a divided front memory without describing “backseat” or headspace memories)

-absent Memories are rarely or never formed from the given perspective, either due to never occupying that perspective or due to occupying that perspective without being able to recall it from that perspective. (Ex: A foreabsent member would be incapable of remembering anything from the perspective of being in control of the body, even if they were the one fronting during the time that memory would have formed)

Memory Fraction

Complete Memory The whole experience of the memory, including the events that occurred, what was physically and emotionally felt at the time, and what was being thought or what reasoning occurred behind the actions taken at the time

Biographical Memory The events of what happened (ex: Got hit by a ball)

(Sense) Memory What was felt by a given sense at the time (ex: Visual memory would refer to what was seen, audio memory would refer to what was heard, pain memory would refer to what pain was felt, etc)

Emotional Memory What was felt emotionally (ex: Was angry)

Cognitive Memory What was being thought or what reasoning existed behind the actions taken (ex: Fantasized about what it would be like to not get hit by a ball)

Internal Memory A combination of emotional and cognitive memory (mentioned because it seems like a useful shorthand for two things that are commonly connected)

Example

As an example of how this method could be used, we’ll describe how our memory works! We as a system have a mostly forelinear biographical memory, but a forepermeable to forevided internal memory, and are largely retroabsent and enabsent

Forelinear biographical memory - As a system, we usually remember what was done in front from the perspective of being the body even if we weren’t fronting at the time

Forepermeable to forevided internal memory - We have a hard time remembering what others were thinking or feeling while fronting, sometimes to the point that one member might not remember what another member was thinking or feeling while in front at all, even if that member would have remembered it if they had been fronting themself at the time

Largely retroabsent and enabsent - We usually don’t remember not being in control of the body (backseating, which we do a lot) or being in headspace (because we don’t really Have a headspace) at all, all memories formed at such times come from the perspective of the front/being in control of the body

Notes for Usage and Modification

It's not a perfect method. While these words are all stuff meant to help communicate some concrete concepts, they've still got middle grounds like "well, what exactly counts as front?" or "how do source memories fit in?" but we hope it's specific enough to help fill the niche were trying to fill here. The whole reason we made this method was to try to find a way to describe specific aspects of plural memory in a way that's easy for anyone to modify as needed while still being specific enough to communicate a semi-concrete idea, so we encourage everyone to use and change it for your own purposes!