SYSTEM.md
Updated 2024-10-15.
Hello, and welcome. If you’ve been handed this README, then you’re someone I trust. You’re someone with whom I want to share the whole “me,” or rather should I say, “the whole ‘us’”. You see, I (we) am (are) plural, a system, a collection of multiple persons in the same body, three sloths in a trench coat. (That last one’s a joke.)
tl;dr: we are a system of three alters: Rebecca, Stephanie (Anie), and Tom. You can refer to us collectively as Stef, Co-op, or kindrobot with they/them pronouns.
Glossary of Terms
In case you’re not familiar with terms like plural or system in this context, here are some hopefully helpful definitions:
plural : (psychology, informal, not comparable, of a person) Having some form of multiplicity, especially dissociative identity disorder.
multiplicity : (psychology) The condition of a single body/person displaying multiple distinct personas.
dissociative identity disorder : (psychiatry) A mental disorder characterized by the presence of two or more personality states or distinct identities that repeatedly take control of a person’s behavior.
system : (psychiatry) A set of alters, or the multiple (“the individual with multiple personalities due to, for example, a dissociative personality disorder”) who contains them.
alter : An identity, part or personality state of a person with dissociative identity disorder (previously known as multiple personality disorder).
front : the act of one alter taking control of the shared body
All definitions except for “front” are from English Wiktionary. The “front” definition is my own.
Our experience
Much of our life has been marked by internal forces working at cross-paths with each other. Realizing and coming out to ourselves was a spiritual experience where all-of-a-sudden these energies, these people, could talk to one another and cooperate. This made us feel more comfortable in our body and our brain than ever before.
Us
We are, to the best of our knowledge, five entities: three internal to the system, two external (whom we will not introduce here.) Collectively we answer to Stef (she/they). We do our best to be honest with one another, be kind to one another, and cooperate towards achieving our common goal: namely to be a kind human and leave the world a little better and a little weirder than we found it.
Rebecca (Becca) (she/they) 👩🏻🔬
Rebecca (formerly Stef) is a curious soul. She enjoys learning, especially science. She’s sufficiently social, an introvert cosplaying as an extrovert. When she’s not on the beam, she can be a bit controlling. She is curious, sincere, and pragmatic. Her goal is to someday be a mother and a wife.
Stephanie (Anie) (she/her) 💃🏻
Stephanie is a younger (adult) spirit. She’s silly, flirty, very outgoing, sarcastic. She’s very mindful, and full of joy, but she has the hardest time fronting out of all of us, especially if we’re under duress. She can be a blind optimist. Her ultimate goal is to do humanitarian work.
Tom (they/he) 👨🏻💻
Tom is an older spirit, who fronted most of the time until late 2021, when he consciously handed the reigns over to Stef. Tom is very smart, a bit of an absentminded professor type. Tom abruptly starts fronting when they see an injustice being carried, a person in danger, or sense that the system is in danger. Tom’s goal is to get out of the house and teach somebody something fascinating.
Conclusion
This page will be a work in progress for some time. Please feel free to ask questions. Here are a few I anticipate:
- Should I address you any differently?
- Probably not, we all will answer to Stef (she/they), and will let you know in the moment if we prefer something else.
- If you want to address the system as a whole, you can use “y’all.”
- Is it rude to ask to whom I’m speaking?
- No, in fact it makes us feel seen and cared for.
- We’ll often sign off texts and messages (e.g. ~stef, ~anie, or ~tom)
If you’re looking to read more about plurality, we recommend Plurality Resource.
~Rebecca, Tom, and Anie