What is it?

Multiplicity at its most simple, is where there are two or more people within a single body who regularly take control of that body. What we mean by that is that although there are more than one person there, someone who was talking to a multiple (A body with more than one person) would see and interact with only that one particular person, complete with their own opinions, feelings, hopes, fears, abilities, strengths, weaknesses, experience of life etc.

The term "multiple" means 'more than one' and is often used to describe someone who experiences multiplicity. Some groups prefer to use the term 'plural', which seems to us to mean pretty much the same thing. There are plenty of groups who take multiplicity in their stride and have no major problems with it. There are however many groups who have tremendous difficulty with being multiple and may turn to mental health services for assistance. When these folks come to the attention of services they are usually given a diagnosis of 'Multiple Personality Disorder' or 'Dissociative Identity Disorder'. The latter is more commonly used in the USA.

The main issue that many multiples have with the psychiatric terminology above is the use of the word 'disorder'. For many of us though, we can be disordered and might need some support in finding a way of working which enables us get on better in our everyday lives. There are some groups who choose to integrate, that is to join all of the separate people into one whole, this works for some but it is not appropriate for everybody and is very much a matter of choice, a choice which must be respected either way. It is a choice that we would be unlikely to make.

For people who are not multiple, the idea of different people taking control of the body is a tricky one to get their head around. a few years ago we tried to explain it using a bus as an analogy. Almost everybody has travelled by bus or coach at some time, and nearly everyone else has at least seen one.

The analogy compares the body of a multiple with a bus. It is grossly over-simplistic in the sense that a bus has a clearly defined role compared to a complex organism. The idea of having more than one person taking control of the body- Imagine the body is like a bus full of people who are all capable of driving the bus, but only one will do so at a time. Others might drive the bus (take control of the body) at different times, but there will even be some who don't want to.

Within any group, be it a multiple or a physical group of people there will be many similarities as well as notable differences. For person who does not realise that they are dealing with a multiple we can seem strange and inconsistent. When different people are 'out' we have changes in lots of things such as opinions, belief's, preferences, appetite, tastes etc. In our group 'The Gang', the most striking differences between us are in areas like politics and religion.

In the world of multiplicity there are is a bit of terminology and jargon. We have provided a link on our links page to a website which explains terminology and how to avoid causing offence. Many multiples describe their group as a system, not a bad word really as it implies harmony and working together. We think that the word itself is a little cold and technical and prefer to use the term group to define our colourful little collective.

Lastly, on the question of numbers. In some groups there might be only a few people, but multiples are all different. We have in our professional capacity met a group who have thirteen people, but there are also much larger groups with huge numbers of people. We may have about thirty. We say may, because we don't know for sure- could be more, could be less. Thirty is the number of names that have been made known to us internally. Our policy is to assume the name belongs to someone until proven otherwise.