(This was originally a Twitter thread that we wrote. It is specifically written to address one aspect of plurality discourse, and does not delve into spiritual and cultural experiences at all. We do not intend to erase or invalidate those explanations here, only to address a specific argument on its own terms. We have a lot more to share in later blog posts.)
One time, we had a roommate who was born without a corpus callosum: medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318065
This has an interesting parallel to endogenic plurality.
Before we met her, we’d only heard of the corpus callosum being severed as part of an experimental surgical treatment for severe epilepsy: my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatme
Mostly, we learned about this in psychology class and Discover magazine. It has interesting side effects.
People who have had their corpus callosum severed begin to have difficulties with coordination and memory. This is caused by the fact that the two sides of their brain can no longer communicate with each other through the corpus callosum. The articles we read back then listed a bunch of detailed activities that were now difficult for these patients to do, and in just which ways they had difficulty. It’s really fascinating, because these patients’ experiences helped teach scientists about what each hemisphere does.
It’s also problematic, because it involves making someone inherently disabled through surgery. But when seizures are threatening a person’s life, sometimes it is an option presented to them. This surgery could be considered trauma. I mean, it actually is trauma. All surgery is.
Our housemate, who was born without a corpus callosum, was able to adapt to her condition and learn how to live with it from conception. Her list of impairments was much more mild than those of the surgery patients, & she could mask her condition socially, at least superficially. But it was still a significant disability for her. If you go and compare the two articles we listed above, you can see some of the differences. Memory problems aren’t listed in agenisis, but are for the surgery. Well, she had memory problems, too, but she had work-arounds.
This is similar to the common differences between plural systems that are endogenic and traumagenic.
In actuality, there may be no differences in many cases. There’s no reason an endogenic system can’t exhibit all of the symptoms of DID so severely that they can’t function well. But, in speaking about statistical variances, it does seem that endogenic systems are less likely to be DID or OSDD. And that could be because they are more developmentally adapted to being plural.
In our case, we have exhibited all of the symptoms of DID. And we still do, but much, much less severely than between 2012 and 2016, just before we realized we were plural. During that time, we had severe cases of blackouts, amnesia, and conflicting motives. Our ex-wife noticed this before we did, even, but it was terrifying.
We even blacked out on a section of the freeway.
Within a month of us admitting to ourselves we were plural, however, we had resolved our internal differences and started getting a handle on our CPTSD triggers through working cooperatively. And we did this without the help of a counselor.
We are an endogenic system. We have differential memories predating any of the trauma or symptoms we have relating to our CPTSD, AND though our corpus callosum is healthy and intact our brain is most strongly divided by hemisphere due to different hemispherical genders. We even have E.E.G. evidence backing up our experience of hemispherical dissociation.
In any case, regardless of our own experiences, there is absolutely no reason to ever believe that any human experience can only be caused by socially induced trauma. That concept is patently ABSURD. Whatever the brain experiences can be caused by variances in fetal development.
To consider plurality a special case that can only be caused by trauma is to fly in the face of the truth of neurodiversity and just, even regular bio diversity. It is an illogical idea with no basis in science.