Dissociative disorders such as Dissociative Identity Disorder, Partial Dissociative Identity Disorder, Other Specified Dissociative Disorder, and Unspecified Dissociative Disorder are disorders which systems have. These disorders are caused by repeated childhood trauma during a time period between the ages of 7-9 in which the ego states that make up a child's mind never fuse into a singular identity. These ego states, often referred to in medical settings as 'parts' or 'alters' (also can be referred to as sysmates or headmates), remain seperate due to dissociative barriers, which leads to common symptoms such as depersonalization and memory loss. It's important to note that this is the ONLY reason why people have 'multiple altered states of consciousness', as there is no reason for the ego states to not integrate unless if it was from a trauma response.
Now, endogenic (and anything that falls under endogenic, which is just anything that isnt traumagenic) systems and their supporters claim that you can be a system without necessarily having any of those disorders. Some claims I have seen/heard of are;
"Some people are born with alters." "Some people manifested a system." "Sometimes other mental illnesses can cause someone to be a system." "You can be a system without trauma." "You don't need to have DID/OSDD to be plural."
All of these claims are not only very wrong, but also harmful.
"Some people are born with alters."
It is impossible to be born with DID/OSDD. It's possible to be born with a genetic condition that makes you more prone to dissociation, but that doesn't mean that you were born as a system. Dissociation is also a symptom of other disorders such as DP/DR (Depersonalization/Derealization), BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder), etc.
"Some people manifested a system."
Some people believe it is possible to 'manifest' a system through a process called tulpamancy. Tulpamancy is a practice in which someone creates a 'sentient, seperate consciousness' using the power of the mind through focus and intention. Now, tulpamancy originated from Tibetan Buddhism, and it is in fact a closed practice. Obviously some people caught onto that and now they use the term 'thoughtform'. But it is impossible to simply create an alter- an alter is 'created' when, in a stressful situation, one of the multiple ego states splits, creating a new alter. I don't really care if you practice tulpamancy/create 'thoughtforms', but to refer to yourself as a system because of that is straight up disrespectful.
"Sometimes other mental illnesses can cause someone to be a system."
This one is just blatantly incorrect. Other mental illnesses cannot cause someone to be a system. Obviously, you can have other mental illnesses along with DID/OSDD, but you can't 'become' a system if you have another mental illness like BPD or something. The only disorder that causes ego states to split is DID/OSDD.
"You can be a system without trauma." "You don't need to have DID/OSDD to be plural."
The last ones are very obviously false. The only way to be a system is by having DID/OSDD, the only way you can be a system is if you have experienced childhood trauma. It doesn't matter what kind of trauma it is, because at the end of the day, being a system is quite literally a trauma response and the reason why systems exist are because the mind thinks that it will protect you. Like I have said before, there is absolutely no reason for these ego states to not integrate unless if it was from repeated trauma.
made by the inferno collective