Polyfragmentation
What is a polyfragmented system?
A polyfragmented system is a DID system with many alters, but more specifically, a lot of fragments, which are alters with one very specific job (I'll get more into that later.) Polyfragmented systems often can have a complex system structure, which, aside from alters, can include a complex innerworld with layers, an equally complex splitting pattern, at least one subsystem, and a history of trauma that can be chaotic and long lasting, or maybe trauma caused by multiple parties in a short period of time, such as ritualistic abuse or sadistic abuse. If all of that is a bit confusing, simply put, a polyfragmented system is a system with many fragments/more fragments than fully developed parts, and a lot of times, at least one subsystem, but often times more.
How do polyfragmented systems form?
There is a variety of reasons a polyfragmented system can form. It can be from RAMCOA (Ritualistic abuse, Mind control, and Organized abuse,) but it can also be caused or influenced from a number of other things, including chaotic families, and abuse that starts young and continued on into adolescence and/or even adulthood.
The more traumatizing experiences in the life of someone with complex/polyfragmented DID, the more alters will form in direct response to said traumas.
What is a fragment?
A fragment is a type of alter that can often be two dimensional in personality and hold memories or other things associated with these specific traumatic experiences. Fragments rarely ever front unless something that reminds them of their experiences triggers them to front. It's important to note that these types of alters can also form to be tasked with very specific jobs, such as cooking or cleaning the house, etc, as opposed to more fleshed out alters who may be tasked with more general jobs, such as a caretaker, who could possibly be in charge of making sure the body is taken care of, making sure the house is taken care of, and making sure friends are checked in on. In short, fragments are alters with specific memories and/or specific jobs, and may not front unless something relating to their specific trauma or job comes up. One more important thing to mention about fragments is that they can occur in systems that are not polyfragmented. Polyfragmented means many fragments, so a polyfragmented system is one with many fragments, not fragments period.
Polyfragmented systems and introjects
In polyfragmented systems who compare their traumas and stressors to fictional media, alters may often split from those fictional medias. This can also happen with any other sort of media, too, of course, fictional or otherwise. Since polyfragmented systems split so much, as well, this can lead to many alters from medias. Even more on this, systems who are autistic and/or have other neurodivergencies are more prone to latching onto their interests, which can be fictional media. In this case, it makes it even more easy to split introjects, especially when heavily traumatized, as trauma can cause you to latch more heavily onto the media as an escape from trauma.
What else is there to note about polyfragmented systems?
- When rapid switching, alters may act differently depending on who they front before or after. Alter A may act differently when fronting after Alter B as opposed to how they would act when fronting after Alter C. Their demeanor and personality may not be as clear as it would be when not rapid switching.
- In polyfragmented DID, it is more common to have more elaborate, big and/or complex headspaces where alters can interact amongst themselves to an extent far beyond the norm of DID. Sometimes, polyfragmented systems can have alters that solely are meant to fill roles within the innerworld.
- Polyfragmented systems typically have complex splitting patterns, sometimes splitting multiple new alters each time trauma or stress occurs instead of one. Sometimes, alters will split off their own alters, making them have a system within a system, which is a type of subsystem. Other times, big clusters of alters will form another type of subsystem, a group of alters that all deal with different aspects of different types of trauma.
Polyfragmentation in OSDD
Polyfragmented OSDD is something that is often believed cannot occur due to OSDD having lower amnesia than DID, as OSDD is categorized under secondary structural dissociation where DID is tertiary. The reason amnesia has any part in this is because polyfragmentation is usually only found in victims of trauma caused by multiple parties in a short period of time and/or chaotic, long lasting trauma. This causes more amnesia because of how much trauma had occurred to the victim and how long the traumas lasted. In OSDD, there is less amnesia due to how much the child relies on dissociation and/or the age the trauma(s) occured. In polyfragmented systems, the child relies on dissociation heavily. There has been some documentation of people with OSDD who display symptoms of being polyfragmented (you can find this in <#1024820637547634689>), but that doesn't necessarily make them polyfragmented.