Integrated or Functionally Multiple?
Most of you know that I consider myself integrated even though I often share with you thoughts from or stories about some of my parts.
Heck, my memoir, Crazy: Reclaiming Life from the Shadow of Traumatic Memory, ends with my integration.
Truly, I lived my life as One Whole from about 2000 to 2020. Then I wrote and published my memoir and all hell broke loose. Some significant parts from the past came forward again. Some new parts made themselves known. Some parts from the past continued to sleep in the nether regions of my mind, integrated or mimicking, perhaps, integration. Some of the literature on multiplicity would say that I was integrated but a “stressor” caused my parts to split apart temporarily.
The Structural Theory of Dissociation says that we are multiple because we experienced chronic childhood trauma when our brains were still forming. To survive, we put memories, emotions, and experiences into different parts of our brains. As adults, these parts continue to play a role in how we navigate the world. Although our brains can heal, they can’t change the structure.
So which is it? Am I integrated but temporarily split because of stressors? Or will my parts always be there because that’s the way my brain developed when I was a little girl? Honestly, most of the time, I feel integrated.
I talked to Sonia, my therapist (yes, the one that I dismissed a few months ago 😊, but she’s always there!) the other day and asked her, “Am I integrated, or am I functionally multiple?”
“I think you’re functionally multiple, Lyn, in a highly collaborative system that allows you to live as One Whole most of the time,” she said.
There you have it. I’m functionally multiple.
Although some of my parts tell me I’m integrated too.
So more to come. Life is a journey!
One More Space!
Memoir 101 welcomes a maximum of eight participants each year. Today we have seven people registered for the Fall 2024 class. If you’ve been thinking about attending, now is the time! This class is suitable for beginners, for people who have just begun their memoirs, and for people who’ve taken the class before but want to immerse themselves again in the work. The curriculum has been modified to include more attention to memoir structure. Click here for more information or email Lyn.
Goodbye Groupeasy & Hello Heartbeat!
At the end of the week, Groupeasy will be canceled and Heartbeat will be DW’s only Community platform. If you are a subscriber and haven’t accepted your invitation, please do so now. If you need another invitation, email Lyn to ask for it. See you on Heartbeat!
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Integration is to bring together or incorporate (parts) into a whole,
to make up, combine, or complete to produce a whole or a larger unit, as parts do.
~ Dictionary.com
Lyn