The Causes

There are two main thoughts on the causes of Multiplicity. A growing number of multiples believe that they are just naturally multiple, that there is no 'cause' as such. The other group of folks believe that multiplicity is the result of a psychological defence mechanism triggered by experiencing trauma at an early age.

Natural Multiplicity - For many groups their multiplicity is something which is entirely natural to them. They often don't have any specific history of trauma in their past that could be said to have been be a determining factor in their multiplicity. For them, there has always been more than one person from birth.

There is a movement on-line that is known as the empowered multiplicity movement. These groups have no desire to change their existence by fusing everyone into a whole 'individual' by the process known as integration. For many multiples, the 'I' word is more disgusting than the 'F' word!!

Mental Health - The approach taken by the mental health people considers the state of being plural to be a mental disorder which needs to be addressed and put right. They believe that some kind of severe and enduring childhood trauma is usually the cause, or at least a major factor.

The rationale behind this is that when a child is exposed to trauma they are unable to handle it. The 'original person' takes a back seat and a separate 'part' is created to face the world and handle the trauma. In this model, more fragmentation is said to occur when there is a higher level of trauma. The different parts compartmentalise the memories of the trauma keeping it away from and thus protecting the 'original person'. More trauma = more parts. The parts are not generally considered people in their own right (We think they should be).

This fragmented part of their personality can continue to develop and take on a whole life of its own. In a very real way this process of splitting is a survival mechanism which can help them cope with the world. The original person is still there somewhere, but the new one faces the world.

Often the individuals have little or no awareness of each other. The mental health people believe that all the individuals are 'only' fragments of the one original person and their treatment method is to recover repressed memories and fuse all the people together into one 'Whole' Person.

We, The Gang believe that the main reason that we are multiple is probably some quirk of nature. We do accept the fact that we were abused in the past and that this could be a contributing factor. Further to that, when we were young our mother was a very chaotic person who made a number of bizarre decisions which had a particularly traumatic effect on us. We certainly have no accessible memories of any 'severe trauma' (That doesn't mean there are none), but how traumatic an experience is to different people can be very subjective. The truth is simple, that we may never know why we are multiple.