The term “healthy multiplicity” was coined by Dr. Colin Ross.
Who knew? ^^***
The presence of alters alone is not quite enough for a person to be diagnosed with a mental “disorder”. For a dissociative disorder to be diagnosed the person must have either clinically significant distress, or impaired functioning in a major area of life. [1,2]
This means that it is possible to be mentally healthy and a multiple, this is referred to as “healthy multiplicity”. Some people incorrectly assume that the goal of treatment for Dissociative Identity Disorder (and similar forms of DDNOS) is to either remove “alters” or to fuse into a single identity.
This is not correct; removing alters is not possible and fusing them into a single identity is not necessary although some alters do choose this.
There are different options in treatment, and the majority people do not fully integrate, only around a third do. [6]
Psychotherapist Dr Alison Miller states that multiplicity is called a “disorder” in psychiatry but it is actually a “valuable, creative asset” which makes a person “well adapted to living with ongoing trauma”. [10]
Miller states that multiplicity “is not an inferior way of being” and has some advantages.
Advantages may include having some alters which do not have the distraction of emotions or managing everyday life, so, they are able to have a single focus and do amazing things are like special being able to memorize large amounts of information (savant abilities).
Some multiples whose alter personalities are extremely cooperative prefer to stay as a community of coordinated alters rather than seeking integration into a single identity.[10]
Dr Colin Ross, a well known expert on treating Dissociative Disorders, states that the intrusive actions of “part selves” (alters) is not the actual problem, and recognizes healthy multiplicity as possible.
‘the problem in MPD is not the intrusion of part selves as such, it is with the degree of amnesia, conflict, self-destruction, and dysfunction in the psyche. The problem is not the multiplicity, it is the degree of pathological dissociation. In MPD the part selves are personified to an abnormal degree. There is a big difference between someone with active classical MPD, and an individual with healthy multiplicity.’[14]
Read more: http://traumadissociation.com/alters.html#healthymultiplicity
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