I don’t understand why you’re so focused on having an explanation on why endogenic plurality exists to prove that it does. You can observe that something exists without knowing the why behind it.
If there's no explanation or even a consistent definition, I struggle to just believe it without any evidence.
But my issue isn't limited to lack of evidence. It's contradiction.
We know CDDs exist, obviously. There's decades upon decades of consistent cases. People that dedicate their entire careers to treating and researching it.
Historically, there's been some misinformation and misrepresentation of it along the way, but the symptoms, presentation, and circumstances under which CDDs develop has been consistent and pointed to a specific mechanism- structural dissociation.
If a different mechanism can produce autonomous states in a functionally identical way to what is observed in CDDs, that leads to one conclusion. Professionals and institutions that have conducted and recorded those decades of research study trauma and dissociation extensively and have come to the conclusion that structural dissociation as it is understood is the likeliest mechanism behind the features of CDDs... have kinda been wasting their time.
This would also mean:
Trauma and/or disorganized attachment do not have a direct causative relationship to the development of autonomous dissociated states. The mechanism is something that has no consistent trigger.
It can be trauma. It can be present from birth. It can be chosen. It can be spiritually manifested. It can happen because you're a writer with a vivid imagination or autistic and hyperfixate on your favorite characters.
Because all of these fit the loose umbrella of "endogenic plurality" for those who subscribe to the belief that it can exist outside of structural dissociation.
This also implies not just one, not two, but several mechanisms with a functionally identical outcome. That is just, on a neurological and psychological level, nonsensical.
Autonomous states are not the brain compartmentalizing adverse experiences to keep the individual alive. It is some other thing that can not be explained by the observed overabundance of childhood trauma.
Every feature that is understood to serve a survival need is not something that exclusively develops for survival. Splits do not always have a functional role. Sometimes integration is not possible because there are cases where there is no trauma to integrate.
I'm aware that there are therapists and specialists who also believe in endogenic plurality or are accepting of it without desiring an explanation. They're entitled to their opinions like everyone else. But they aren't suggesting a mechanism separate from what causes CDDs, or a theory that can explain both without contradiction. They're not trying to prove anything, it's just kinda like, "that's valid if you wanna call it that".
Even medical professionals will have personal opinions without any desire to defend them with evidence. Some fair, some harmless, some bad and invalidating (like the ones that deny that conditions exist). A medical professional having an opinion without evidence or hypothesis is still an opinion without evidence or hypothesis.
But compartmentalized states with internal and external roles and traits that are associated with structural dissociation (identity differentiation, autonomy, switches, varying degrees of agency and physical control, splits, etc) without structural dissociation being the mechanism would not only be a scientifically massive discovery that many neurologists would be highly interested in, but without any evidence or explanation... is not plausible.
I think that saying definitively that such a mechanism is not only plausible, but an undebatable truth, is where the harm comes in. What I'm saying right now would by many, be written off as "hate".
I can't prove or disprove what's going on in someone's brain, nor am I trying to. I'm also not arguing the experience, just the mechanism and framework. Especially when in many of these cases, there are other mechanisms that can possibly explain what's happening. Ego state elaboration, fantasy immersion, maladaptive tendencies, BPD, structural dissociation without fully meeting the criteria for a CDD, a CDD with amnesia that makes one believe they don't have trauma, or enough to cause a CDD- a very common DID trait.
If your experience is meaningful and brings you joy, you still deserve that. I think it can still be beautiful, actually, even if I don't agree with the labels and framework.
