"Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, this disorder is characterized by "switching" to alternate identities. You may feel the presence of two or more people talking or living inside your head, and you may feel as though you're possessed by other identities. Each identity may have a unique name, personal history and characteristics, including obvious differences in voice, gender, mannerisms and even such physical qualities as the need for eyeglasses. There also are differences in how familiar each identity is with the others. People with dissociative identity disorder typically also have dissociative amnesia and often have dissociative fugue." - The Mayo Clinic
"Formerly known as multiple personality disorder, this disorder is characterized by alternating between multiple identities. A person may feel like one or more voices are trying to take control in their head. Often these identities may have unique names, characteristics, mannerisms and voices. People with DID will experience gaps in memory of every day events, personal information and trauma." - National Alliance on Mental Illness
An Explanation of Dissociative Identity Disorder by Echo, an alter in Madii Collective
"We are a system. A system is someone who has dissociative identity disorder (DID). Dissociative identity disorder used to be known as multiple personalities, and is still highly stigmatized and the public is still mostly uneducated about it. DID happens when someone experiences severe childhood and teenage trauma (though there are some medical professionals who believe it can happen at any age). When this trauma happens and the child or teenager, for whatever reason, is unable to cope with or understand it, the brain splits into separate parts to deal with it. Think of it as compartmentalization to the most extreme level. These parts are called Alters or Alternative Personalities.
Each alter has their own unique identity. They have their own thoughts, their own memories, their own gender and sexuality, so on. They can be any age, they can be any sex or gender, even any race. They even can be based off of fictional characters because the brain latches onto it and decides to "steal" those attributes and personality and memories as it's own. We (Madii Collective) do not, as of right now, have any of those, but they are possible and relatively common within systems.
When an alter is "front" it means they are conscious and at the "front" of the brain. It's best to think of it as a control room at the front of the brain, with access to the eyes, the body, the senses, etc., and whoever is at the control panel is "fronting". It's possible for more than one alter to be at the control panel, and this is called being blended or "blendy". Imagine if 4 people had the control to the same remote control car; chaos. Being blendy is really confusing and disorienting and we tend to not know who we are or what's going on..... it's very difficult and is happening most of the time right now for our system. Then there's the option that only one alter is at the control panel, but one or more other alters are present within the control room. This is called being co-conscious and is less disorienting but you still hear them talking in your head, still can sense their presence, and can be a little distracting. When only one alter is fronting, there's no co consciousness, no blendiness, and the rest of the alters have no awareness of what's happening. If you're not in the control room you don't have access to the present moment, and you are doing other stuff in the rest of the brain. It's weird to think but it's kind of like inside out, where there's other rooms and sections and things happening at once. This causes lapse in memories, amnesia, confusion, disassociation, etc.
Each alter has a job or role in the system. Because of this, some alters have access to trauma memories, and some do not. Because, remember, this is a trauma disorder; everything the system does and how it works, is designed around coping with trauma."
-Echo of Madii Collective *Disclaimer: We are not a doctor, this is just how we explain it and how it has been explained to us. For further research you can visit:
The Collective is a system of 17+ alters. Below are short introductions to the alters who are artists and participate in Madii Collective.
Madii (he/they): Madii (age 26) is the 'Core' personality, the personality that associates most with the body and identifies with it. He likes to create self portraits and explores identity and mental illness within art.
Echo (they/them): Echo (age 30+) is an 'Internal Self Helper' and 'Care Taker', and mostly assists other alters (particularly the alters under age 13) and contains a lot of knowledge of the system and the internal workings. The very rare times Echo is fronting alone, they create digital artwork on Procreate. They also assist Bambi with digital artwork.
Cruise (he/him): Cruise (age 22-26) started out as a 'Fragment' alter who's role was to finish tasks that were started and to 'cruise control' when no one else had energy to take care of the body. Recently he has further developed and is beginning to develop more range. In art, he can continue most projects that haven been started, though he is not as good at realism, surrealism or detail as some of the others. In his own practice he likes line drawings, single line drawings, doodles/scribbles, and often represents faces.
Sage (they/them): Sage (unknown age, between 19-30) is a non verbal alter who suffers the most with our autism symptoms, and brings attention to our sensory and emotional regulation needs. Art wise, Sage creates surrealist paintings and fantastical landscapes.
Blue (it/they): Blue (unknown age, between 19-30) is a 'Trauma Holder' and 'Emotional Protector' for The Collective. When in a calm state it creates emotional spaces with impressionistic brushstrokes. When influenced by Hopeless and/or Angry or are in a severe depressive episode, they are more abstract and reactive and revert to art therapy techniques and themes.
Angry (??): Angry (unknown age, between 19-30) is a 'Persecutor' within the system. Not much is known about them. They use a lot of red and black in their art and use graphic elements.
Hopeless (??): Hopeless (unknown age, between 19 and 30) is a 'Persecutor' and 'Trauma Holder' who does not front often. While they don't front often and therefore don't have much opportunity to make art, within the art they do contribute in, they use drips, ink, and eye motifs. Red handprints are their signature and they've plastered red handprints on other alter's artworks as protest before.
Bambi (she/her): Bambi (age 5-8) is a 'Gate Keeper' and 'Pleasant Memory Holder'. She is beloved by anyone who meets her and brings light to the system. When conscious by herself her art is youthful, fast, intuitive, juvenile, and untrained. When Echo is co-conscious or blending with her, Bambi creates colour fields in the theme of "This is what _________ Feels Like".