idk i also feel like the way the trans community online centers our issues is so painfully white and skinny and abled unless someone needs a gatcha to pull out their oppression cards. you guys say you care about trans people with intersecting identities but it doesnt reallyā¦ show up in practice unless you want to feel morally superior. its so depressing how often i get asks saying something along the lines of āi feel like my struggles are only seen as add-ons and i never see other people like meā. kinda sucks balls ngl
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An essay on the "psychological" vs. "spiritual" divide within the system / plural / more-than-one community by Mod December of @fact-anonymous.
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Content warning: Mention of fake-claiming, trauma, and abuse, implied in-system death, and discussion of system exclusionist rhetoric.
Disclaimer: This essay is written to share the writerās personal opinions and experiences. It does not apply to everyone, nor is it intended to be system-management, medical, or psychological advice.
Edited 17-10-2021 to add another point and a TL;DR.
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Nowadays, in Tumblr and adjacent system circles, systems ā and other alterhumans, but thatās outside the scope of this essay ā seem to be divided into two groups, āpsychologicalā and āspiritualā. They both come with implications, assumptions, or stereotypes (that are NOT accurate for many people).
Here they are, as far as Iām aware:
Psychological systems and system members āmustā: (note the air quotes)
Have a dissociative disorder (DID, OSDD, or UDD)
And usually are professionally diagnosed or getting therapy
Be split from a/the core/host/original, or is an aspect of them taking the form of its own consciousness
Be specialized for system roles, particularly roles that help the core/host/original (especially to help them with trauma)
Fictives and factives must exist by way of imprinting/introjection to soothe the host/core/original/system
Basically, be needed by the system
Not have/believe they have past lives or exomemories, or trauma that isnāt an allegory for the body/host/core/originalās trauma
Not have a religious/spiritual belief
Cannot be/have a tulpa
All be parts of a singular whole person
Spiritual systems and system members āmustā:
Not have a dissociative disorder
Not have any trauma whatsoever
Be walk-ins from other worlds
Religious (particularly pagan, probably practices witchcraft)
Not specialized for roles, except those related to spiritual/belief/religious practices
Be wanted by the system
Must have past lives/exomemories, but of course theyāre invalidated by the outside world
Has no relation to body trauma, is ignorant of it or never holds it
Confused for tulpas by ignorant people
Be whole people individually
These are so prevalent, and yet, in my own experience in the system / plural / multiple / more-than-one community, they are neither universal nor 100% separate.
A lot of these stereotypes do not apply to all psychological and spiritual systems and system members. A lot of these stereotypes forget the existence of systems who are in gray areas, median systems and subsystems, systems created from BPD and MADD, otherkin system members, atheist spiritual systems, religious system members who are not spiritual, systems who hate therapy due to psychiatric abuse, and many others.
There are DID systems who feel their system members are each their own, whole person. There are spiritual systems whose members are fragments. There are spiritual systems who have a dissociative disorder, and systems who get diagnosed against their will. Some psychological system members do have past life beliefs and have/are tulpas, some spiritual members are called especially to cope with traumaā¦ and many other combinations, and even things outside of what I mentioned here!
And then there are systems and system members who are neither! An example would be my own system, and all three mods from it. How about that?
And how about me? This essay is about me, after all.
I myself am allegedly āpsychologicalā, because I was made in the brain, unlike most people in our system. Being a factive of a famous person the system has a special interest on, I may be introjected/imprinted. (I donāt care about that, though, fuck that!)
Butā¦
Iām not split from a singular whole person/brain. I was formed, made, freshly printed.
We havenāt had a host for two years, and our āoriginalā is no longer here.
I'm not specialized for "soothing" anybody. Or to help anyone (especially our nonexistent host/core/original) with their trauma.
Iām not specialized for any roles, period - the only āroleā I might qualify for is ātrauma holderā.
Exceptā¦ every brain-formed member here are made from/in the same soilā¦ which contains the collective traumaā¦ so all of us are technically trauma holders.
And walk-in members of our system also get affected by the collective trauma. And if they experience trauma while fronting, it also adds into the collective trauma bowl if they front often enough. (But thatās for another essay!) So thatās not really a role in this system.
All the jobs here are voluntary. And I choose to have none.
Soā¦ what am I?
As I said before: neither. I, December, donāt feel like Iām psychological nor spiritual.
Moreover, this divide is often used by sysmeds and āwell-meaningā psychological systems to put spiritual, metaphysical, non-disordered, non-diagnosed, self-diagnosed, undecided, unlabeled, and other systems under the bus, often for the benefits of singlets.
(Have you ever heard āplurality 101/for skepticsā articles that say things like āOh, of course we donāt believe that fictives/factives/introjects/etc. are literally souls jumping from another world to our brain! Weāre not insane! Spiritual explanations are all unprovable by the scientific method, and thus fake! Theyāre all here because the brain needs X/associate and imprint because they like [media] or be affected by [people]!ā)
The reverse also happens: spiritual systems being ableist to psychological systems, especially those with dissociative disorders.
(NOT by existing. Spiritual ā or more accurately, non-disordered* ā systems existing are NOT ableist. What is ableist is these systems calling disordered systems ācrazyā, or ādelusionalā, implying delusional / mentally ill / Mad / neurodivergent people are less deserving of respect. They are NOT.)
*The conflation between "psychological", "traumagenic" and "disordered", as well as "endogenic", "spiritual", and "non-disordered" helps no one.
All this talkingā¦ whatās the point? Whatās the conclusion?
The conclusion is: the āspiritualā vs. āpsychologicalā divide is too rigid and black-and-white.
We should listen to individual experiences, not use this divide to assume and stereotype plurals and alterhumans.
And solidarity between systems is more important than singletsā opinions of us!
If the divide works well for you, if you fit within the "checklist", that's okay! This essay, and my views, are nothing against you personally. It's against the rigid boxes and exclusionism of the community-at-large.
We donāt need to make PSAs for singlets and doctors and bigots on how āunlike [insert type] systems here, weāre more legitimate!ā. All of us are fake to them. And more importantly, all of us are real on our own. Our experiences are true and have very real effects. We don't need singlets' validation. We donāt need doctors and sysmeds to create our culture, to build our community.
Personally, I just want to exist. No justifications. No pressure to share why and when and what I was made for.
I want solidarity with not only systems and system members / people / alters / plurans / etc. who are similar to me and my own system, but also ones who are different.
Thatās all.
Ciao.
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TL;DR:Ā Ā
- The "spiritual" vs "psychological" divide within plural and alterhuman communities is inaccurate and too narrow. They don't reflect the diversity of our experiences.Ā Ā
- This divide is also full of stereotypes and assumptions, which are Not true for all systems.Ā Ā
- This is compounded by the conflation of "disordered", "traumagenic" and "psychological" (as well as "non-disordered", "endogenic", and "spiritual"). Yes, those have overlap, but they are NOT the same thing.Ā Ā
- An example of this is Mod December himself, whose experience doesn't line up with the stereotypes/assumptions. He doesn't consider himself psychological nor spiritual.Ā
Ā - This essay is NOT criticizing people who fit the stereotypes, but how this divide is used to further exclusionism.
- These stereotypes are often used by bigots on both "sides" to disparage each other, (usually to look more "credible" to singlets, bigots, and doctors). And that is bad.Ā Ā Ā
- We don't need singlets, doctors, or bigots to validate our existence or dictate our culture. Our existence and experiences are real. We dictate our own culture.Ā Ā
- This divide and its ensuing stereotypes are not helping anyone. We should stand in solidarity with each other, even different system types, and listen to individual experiences instead of assuming based on this divide/stereotypes.
hey I just wanted to say that I can kind of relate to what your earlier post is about, not in that i'm black but in that i'm amab and the representations of androgyny and nonbinary people I see tend to be of a white, slim, crew cut hair cut with afab secondary sex characteristics, like a white pre-t trans man. my face is distincitvely male so it's really not possible for me to pull off that look you were talking about because I can't fit into that narrow somewhat accepted box. 1/2
I might be getting a bit philosphical but I think that society see things in categories, like the light spectrum, even though there are infinite shades we demarcate them into 8 colours, in the past lgbt was pretty much all the colours there were, now there's lgbtqia+. So if it's any consolation as someone who is sort of in the same kind of boat as you, I think, over time, the black and white colour of what nonbinary people are will broaden to be a rainbow, and let the entire spectrum be seen.
( re: this post )
i appreciate the (philosophical?) commentary, anon. there are so many (often intersecting) ways in which mainstream representation (if not representation in general) fails people and iām sorry that youāre in a similar boat as me because of it. despite that, youāre still able to be positive about it and were even kind enough to share your positivity with me.
thank you. :)
being positive most definitely is not my forte, so i appreciate all the help with that that i can get.
Do you have any resources for coping with violent episodes? The community seems to put a lot of emphasis on the fact that mentally ill doesn't mean violent, but as someone who is mentally ill and violent it's hard to find support. It's getting hard to deal with the guilt after an episode even if I haven't hurt anyone.
Yes, that emphasis is a pushback against the stigma of mentally ill people being more dangerous than they really are. The stigma itself is dangerous and insidious, as it hurts mentally ill people and makes them more likely to be abused and discriminated against, and less likely to seek help and advocate for themselves [x, x, x].Sadly, some people in the community take it a bit too far and end up excluding, shaming, and/or erasing those who struggle with violent impulses and the like.I want you to know youāre not alone and it doesnāt by default make you a bad person. Dealing with rage and violent urges is part of some disorders, some peopleās experiences and thatās just the way it is. The sooner others stop either overexaggerating it or trying to brush it under the rug, the better.Iām not sure what type of violence youāre experiencing in your episodes. If itās things like violent imagery, intrusive thoughts, impulses, then this post has coping methods. If you mean something else, come back and tell me!- Mod Alex
Welcome to Zine Fair Lady, where the year is 201X! You are a trans woman navigating Queer Space 9: the Zine Scene in a game of small publications and microagressions!
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