Dissociative Identity ________

December 9, 2016 12:43 PM

Ariadne, Jacqueline, North, and others unnamed are all part of the same system. They share a single body. They take turns “fronting” the body, controlling it. And when they’re not fronting, the system members are free to roam an infinite landscape, a pocket reality that they call the “in-world”.
”Redwoods of the In-World” is an episode of the Here Be Monsters podcast recorded after the system got in touch with producers Jeff Emtman and Bethany Denton.
posted by Going To Maine (5 comments total)

I’m practising self care at the moment and have DID. Can anyone tell me if they avoid the cliches and don’t pity the person or be shocked that such a thing be considered real?

The producers sent the system a tape recorder; most of the episode consists of Ariadne and Jacqueline speaking into the recorder and describing their day-to-day experiences. There is a brief bit of interview with Emtman woven throughout but it is decidedly value neutral. Neither Ariadne nor Jacqueline wishes to integrate their personalities and this view is not questioned.

There is a brief mention in the piece of the violent incident that caused the system to be created, but the reference is oblique. Skip ahead a bit when you hear the discussion turn to Georgia.
posted by Going To Maine at 12:59 PM on December 9, 2016 [6 favorites]

Oh dang, this is incredibly sweet and beautiful and I'm so happy I listened to it.
posted by nebulawindphone at 5:08 PM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

This comment will probably be deleted for insensitivity (and I certainly have empathy with folks with profound problems) but letting someone named Jacqueline just take over and getting to wander in a nice quiet isolated infinite landscape, well, I can/have/been in worse situations, kinda sorta sounds ok.
posted by sammyo at 5:51 PM on December 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

This was a very sweet episode; I'll be listening to this podcast from now on.

Another of a myriad of reminders to me professionally (I'm a neurologist with shades of psychiatric practice) that variation does not always equate to disorder, and that people are sensitive to labels, and that sometimes the way bodies adapt to their circumstances, whether traumatic or not, is beautiful and undisturbable like kintsugi.
posted by adoarns at 6:03 PM on December 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

dissociation is hell of a drug and if I could put it in pill form I'd make a mint

The rave scene beat you to it - everybody loves "Special K"...
posted by crotchety old git at 6:59 PM on December 10, 2016