Mordax et al

I’ve been asked more than a few times about the differences between soulbonds, headmates, fictives, etc, so here’s a little guide that I hope will help with terminology.

Headmate: Any type of person/spirit/identity that shares
mental space with at least one other person/spirit/identity. This term was
coined by outside of the traumagenic community by ‘natural multiples’ to be
used in place of the medical term ‘alter’, a term which some felt was inaccurate
and/or demeaning. Headmate is an umbrella term that includes all other terms
below, and is a generic term to refer to any person existing as a multiple that
does not have a more specific term.

Alter: A type of headmate that is believed to be one singular
identity of a traumagenic multiple. Alters are fragmented identities created in
the mind of a person who has undergone trauma at a young age, before a singular
identity state cemented itself. As of now, alters are the only form of
specifically medically or scientifically recognized headmate, and even their
existence is questioned by much of the scientific community.

Fictive: Any type of headmate that is, believes they are, assumes
the identity of, or is deliberately created to resemble a fictional character,
or member of a fictional species.

Fictional Introject: A fictive alter.

Soulbond: A type of headmate that is believed to be a spirit/person
from another world, that has some type of emotional attachment to the host or
another headmate in the body called the soulbonder.  Many soulbonds do not front, or interact with
this world, but only interact internally with their bonder, and because of this
not all soulbonders consider themselves multiples.

Insourced bond: A soulbond that is not a fictive, or is who
is technically a fictive but was written about/”created” by the soulbonder.

Outsourced bond: a soulbond that is also a fictive.

Walk-In: A type of headmate that is believed to come in from
outside the body, sometimes replacing the original inhabitant.

Tulpa: a type of headmate that is believed to be
deliberately created with one’s own energy, often magical in nature.

Multipicity: The state of believing that someone experiences
sharing their mind/body with one or more other persons/spirits/identities.

Multiple: Anyone who believes they experience sharing their
mind/body with one or more other persons/spirits/identities.

Singlet: Anyone who does not believe they experience sharing
their mind/body with any other persons/spirits/identities.

Dissociative Identity Disorder/OSDD-1: psychological
disorders believed to be caused by trauma in early childhood, causing the
sufferer’s identity to split or fail to cohere, resulting in multiple independent identities. Currently the only medically/scientifically
accepted understanding of multiplicity, their validity as a diagnosis is
debated within the medical community.

Traumagenic multiplicity: A state of multiplicity believed
to be induced by severe trauma.

Endogenic multiplicity: A state of multiplicity believed to
be internally formed without exposure to trauma.

Natural multiplicity, non-trauma
multiplicity: Other words used sometimes used to describe multiplicity that is not rooted in trauma.

System: Generic term for all headmates sharing one body. A minority
of traumagenic multiples claim this word is traumagenic only, however, the
entire multiple community including non-trauma based multiples have been using
the term since at least 1995.

Collective: Term for all headmates sharing one body that isn’t ‘system’.