This review regarding non-disordered plurality was just published September 12, 2023 - and better still, it focuses on the voices of those with lived multiplicity experiences, not just professionals' opinions & observations! (AND it's free access!)
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/cpp.2910?fbclid=PAAaYA2EcZAxCD7cDTUWhV93l1pCsh9ovJMddm5oZ8_V1-PQ7pjum3K4AxhEo
...DID is characterized as having ‘two or more distinct personality states’, in addition to gaps in memory recall, which cause significant distress to the individual (Reinders & Veltman, 2021, p. 1). Comparably, multiplicity describes the experience of being more than one self and is not a diagnosis. Multiplicity is associated with a lack of distress, and impairment in functioning, and often does not involve amnesia between selves; however, some people who experience multiplicity have received a diagnosis such as DID or OSDD (Young Voices Study, 2021). Due to the heterogeneity of dissociative experiences, multiplicity can encompass various presentations as described in this review.
...prevalence rates of multiplicity-spectrum conditions are difficult to extrapolate due to limited reporting and identification, although suspected to be between 4.6% and 46% (Loewenstein, 2018). Indeed, Ross et al. (2002) acknowledged many individuals do not meet clinical criteria as a result of a lack of negative impairment; however, they do align with other descriptors of dissociative experiences. Thus, there is a need to understand the wide spectrum of experiences multiplicity encompasses to consider how an awareness of multiplicity can exist outside of an illness model, reducing stigma and thus stigma related distress surrounding multiplicity (Eve & Parry, 2021; Parry et al., 2017).
...there remains a paucity of understanding surrounding multiplicity-spectrum experiences, especially for people who identify as multiple but for whom multiple selves do not cause functional difficulties in day-to-day life. For people who experience the presence of inner multiplicity but do not suffer distressing consequences from their multiplicity experience, they can feel misaligned, misinterpreted and overlooked by the medicalization of their inner world.
The findings of this review support the notion that multiplicity experiences are complex and varied, existing across a continuum inclusive of multiplicity, DID and derealization–depersonalization (Sar, 2011).
This is huge! So cool to see these perspectives and some scientific literature surrounding non-disordered plurality!
