Tips for Being Plural in the Workplace

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In a video originally made for The Plural Association, Camilla gives some tips for working while plural!

Plural Association Twitter:   / tpanonprofit  

This video was originally preceded by the following speech:

"Being plural can, at times, be an exceedingly lonely and frightening experience. That's why meetups like this and communities like this are so important. We were lucky enough to come to terms with our plurality through communication with another system. This system was kind enough and patient enough to answer our questions and point us to places where we could find more community. We were lucky enough to not have to search for someone else who experienced being many.

But historically, this has not been the case. A close friend of ours in another system once told us that it was two years after their own discovery that they first heard someone else talk publicly about being plural. Two years. We ourselves will be reaching our two year mark at the end of the month, and I can’t imagine only now finding others who experience what we do. And this is probably on the lower end of the spectrum.

We must remember today how deeply privileged we are to be virtually sitting in this room together. Before the internet, this would not happen, or at least on this scale. Systems were discouraged from seeking community, threatened with expulsion from therapy groups if caught fraternizing outside of psychologist-sanctioned areas. In fact, the current ISSTD guidelines for treating systems still has this policy. And historically, plural advocacy has not been taken seriously in the psych community. In the 1993 book Clinical Perspectives on Multiple Personality Disorder, Dr. Richard Kluft, one of the founding members of the ISSTD, writes:

“In some areas, an unofficial ‘MPD community’ has developed- a community whose members perceive themselves as a mistreated minority that should be respected and accepted rather than be asked to change.”

He says this, of course, in the same text where he describes systems who want to stay as many as being “narcissistically invested” in their own system.

So when we create and premiere videos on topics such as “being plural in the workplace”, something we needed tips on when we started two years ago, all I can ever think about is how fortunate we are to have these tips and this experience, and to have a platform to share them. And while I hope that you get something out of this, and I hope that we and our work are seen as good and helpful, I know that even if I was disliked, that would be a privilege as well. Because not too long ago, and still to this very day, there are systems out there not lucky enough to have an opinion on another system.

Thank you, and I hope these tips help."
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