So, as some of you know, there's a new M. Night. Shyamalan film coming out tomorrow called "Split". In it, the antagonists not only have DID, but DID is cited as the reason they're villains. On top of the film just being inaccurate, sensationalist, and harmful in general, there's a chance that we'll get a bunch of outsiders trickling in asking if we're violent or dangerous or whatever, given how many people mix up DID and tulpamancy. (As much as I wish I could have faith in people's abilities to distinguish fiction and reality, remember that a bunch of people read the tulpa creepypastas and then come here asking whether we're dangerous. -spooky hands-)

With that in mind, I've prepared a post in case of such an incursion, and just as something to keep on hand overall in case of any questions resulting from the film. There's two primary sections:

• What is DID, and how is it different from tulpamancy?
• How Split gets DID wrong.

My main focus here is the second point, since I think it's the core issue that needs to be addressed with Split. I'm mainly including the first point because I know it's a primary question that people will ask, and I might as well answer it while I'm here.

(Many thanks to the various people, including those with DID, who helped me with this piece.)

A Quick Overview of DID

Dissociative identity disorder, known as multiple personality disorder in the past and in some areas outside of the US, is a disorder resulting from severe childhood trauma. While the mechanisms are not fully understood, it is believed that dissociation occurs as a defense against trauma, splitting an "original child" into many, or preventing one “original child” from forming in the first place and thus forming several “original children”. Various individuals in the resulting system take up different roles related to the system's survival--for example, one alter may come out to endure abuse so that others will not have to. While this does indeed enable the system's survival in childhood in many cases, unprocessed trauma, strife between system members, memory loss, and involuntary dissociation result in disorder later in life. OSDD-1b is a related disorder, with the primary difference being that DID involves amnesia, while OSDD-1b does not. (There's several subtypes of OSDD, but that's a discussion for another time)

Treatment for DID typically involves building communication and cooperation between alters, stabilizing the system and bringing dissociation/memory issues under control, and processing trauma. It does not necessarily involve integration, i.e. the merging of all alters into a single individual. While there are DID/OSDD systems who find being plural distressing and opt for integration, many prefer being plural and opt for a cooperative existence instead. Many with DID maintain that the multiplicity is not the core issue, but that the lingering symptoms of trauma are.

While DID is rare compared to major depression, it is not as rare as many think it is. While estimations of prevalence vary, the DSM-V ("the bible of psychiatry") estimates the prevalence of DID at 1.5%, while the ISSTD (an organization devoted to studying dissociation and trauma) estimated it at 1.1-3% in 2011. This is comparable to estimated prevalence rates for OCD (1-2%) and autism (1-3%). This is also DID alone--if OSDD was counted as well, the numbers would be even higher.

Experiences of DID are extremely diverse and do not conform to one template. There are DID systems with as few as two individuals, while others have been observed to have hundreds or even over a thousand. A system may have solid alters, more fragmentary entities, or a mix of both. Amnesia may be complete, partial, or only occur during specific types of events, or only occur as holes in childhood. Switches may occur regularly, or only under specific circumstances. Systems might have a "core" or "original" present, or none at all.

There are many more nuances, but this should cover the essentials.

How is this related or not related to tulpamancy?

While both are forms of plurality and overlap does exist (for example, DID systems with tulpas), DID and tulpamancy are very different experiences. The most crucial difference is that tulpamancy is not fundamentally tied to trauma like DID is. This difference radiates out in many ways--alters tend to carry trauma baggage and suffer post-traumatic symptoms as a result of the history that formed them, while tulpas do not. Switching in tulpamancy systems tends to be more voluntary and controlled, and the degree of amnesia, if any, is significantly less than for many DID systems. DID systems tend to suffer from high baseline dissociation, and often have comorbid diagnoses from trauma such as depression, BPD, GAD, [c]PTSD, etc. On a more subtle level, if a DID system has had a history of strife between themselves, that history and resultant baggage may linger on some level, even after learning to work together.

One can choose to create tulpas. One never chooses to have the trauma that leads to DID, but can make the most of their circumstances and build a strong rapport among their system regardless.

In terms of ability, the difference between tulpas and alters varies from system to system. In some, there are differences such as alters being able to switch easier and not being able to impose, while tulpas can easily impose but have more difficulty switching; in others, the differences in ability are more subtle; in others, there is no difference at all.

In terms of personhood, an alter is not "less" than a tulpa, nor is a tulpa "less" than an alter. While there do exist alters who are fragmentary in nature, who consider themselves parts of a whole, this does not mean that all alters are "just fragments" or consider themselves parts--many are their own person as much as any host is. Treat any alter you encounter--including those who are fragmentary and/or consider themselves parts--with the same basic decency and respect as you would any tulpa, host, or other individual.

So, how does Split get DID wrong?

Split is the latest of a generation of films that portray those with DID as violent, dangerous, and subhuman. This is a gross misconception that only increases the stigma against those with DID, as well as other plurals and other people with "scary" mental illnesses.

Alters are no more violent or mindless than any trauma survivor with their own body--as, at their core, alters are trauma survivors. Being crammed into one brain doesn't change that. Just like non-plural trauma survivors, to quote a member of a DID system, they're far more likely to flee under a desk in response to aggression than they are to hurt anyone.

On a related note are several studies done regarding mental illness and crimes:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/mental-illness-and-violence

Public opinion surveys suggest that many people think mental illness and violence go hand in hand. A 2006 national survey found, for example, that 60% of Americans thought that people with schizophrenia were likely to act violently toward someone else, while 32% thought that people with major depression were likely to do so.

In fact, research suggests that this public perception does not reflect reality. Most individuals with psychiatric disorders are not violent. Although a subset of people with psychiatric disorders commit assaults and violent crimes, findings have been inconsistent about how much mental illness contributes to this behavior and how much substance abuse and other factors do.

[...]

Taken together with the MacArthur study, these papers have painted a more complex picture about mental illness and violence. They suggest that violence by people with mental illness — like aggression in the general population — stems from multiple overlapping factors interacting in complex ways. These include family history, personal stressors (such as divorce or bereavement), and socioeconomic factors (such as poverty and homelessness). Substance abuse is often tightly woven into this fabric, making it hard to tease apart the influence of other less obvious factors.

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2014/04/mental-illness-crime.aspx

In a study of crimes committed by people with serious mental disorders, only 7.5 percent were directly related to symptoms of mental illness, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association.

[...]

“When we hear about crimes committed by people with mental illness, they tend to be big headline-making crimes so they get stuck in people’s heads,” said lead researcher Jillian Peterson, PhD. “The vast majority of people with mental illness are not violent, not criminal and not dangerous.”

In the case that a system does have violent alters, the alters in question tend to only be violent towards those in their own system. Reasons can range from attempts to control the system's behavior and keep them from setting off an abuser, to frustration at not having sole control over their life and believing the others in the system are delusions that need to be done away with, to simply believing that the others in their system are not real people and thus acceptable targets to unload aggression on. If anyone is at risk when there's a violent alter, it is the system themself--and even then, like external individuals, many violent alters are not violent "just because", and are capable of changing their ways.

Even in the case of outwardly violent alters, systems lock them down, merge them with another alter, help them process the issues underlying their behavior, or otherwise find ways to nullify their violence. Collective outerworld responsibility--"you are your brother's keeper"--is something taken very seriously by the DID community.

Overall, the majority of DID's disorderly aspects do not manifest in outward violence. Ways they do manifest include: memory loss for either everyday or important past events; uncontrolled switching; general dissociation (feeling unreal, struggling to keep track of the passage of time, etc); post-traumatic symptoms such as flashbacks, exhaustion, and depression/anxiety; extensive self-harm, with 70% of DID systems having attempted suicide at least once. It is already hard for those with DID to find support and proper help, and it is only worsened by the stigma, perpetuated in large part by the existence of movies like Split which use DID as a horror trope and the near non-existence of media that portrays DID in an understanding and sympathetic light.

There are many other things that Split gets wrong (with a dash of transmisogyny and ridicule of autistic people to boot). If you're morbidly curious, a system went to an early screening of the film and made a detailed writeup, complete with plot summary, here. There are four layers of warnings for a reason.

I won't hate you if you see it, but please be aware of what you're watching and what you're giving your money to. (And I'd really recommend just pirating it instead.)

Again, feel free to share this if anyone approaches asking about Split and how your tulpas relate to it. That's what this post is for.

More reading on DID:

• LB-Lee’s Multiplicity Site – Discusses multiplicity in general, but has a strong focus on DID.
• The Dissociative Initiative – A site inclusive of all experiences of plurality, but that focuses primarily on traumagenic multiplicity. Also of relevance–the personal site of the authoring system.
• /u/BloodyKitten's (who has both DID and tulpas) AMA