Animal/fantasy alters

Does anyone know why/how some people with DID have made animal alters and fantasy alters? I am not an expert on alter creations, but I think that with a normal split you will get two humans.

I think that they get created out of the knowledge of a kid. They see those creatures in movies, books, the zoo, and they see their behaviour the same way. so once a certain type of abuse happens, and the kid needs something for protection or caring, they create that animal or fantasy alter because their knowledge of that animal/creature is what they need to survive the abuse.
This is just a thought, I'm not sure if it might be true. Does anyone else know more about this?

This is from Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder: A relational approach
**trigger warning**

Children often identify with animals and experience them as peers and
friends. Abused children may develop animal parts they experience as protectors,
peers, or both in an environment where there was no protection.
Or, the patient may have identified through loss with a beloved pet that was
lost, innocently killed, or murdered to terrify the child, to demonstrate the
abuser’s omnipotence, or to enforce silence.
Sometimes, parts named after the cat family (leopard, cougar, tiger) may
serve as protector states that are allowed to express the emotion the host
cannot. One of my patients would begin growling and switch into Tiger
when she became upset. On the other hand, the presence of cat-family
parts, or other animal parts, may be more serious and indicate the possibility
of dangerous violence—something that should be assessed.
Animal identities may also be self-representations that are consistent with
the abuser’s treatment and labeling of the child. For example, the child may
have been treated like an animal. Dog parts are not infrequent identifications.
A part named Dog may represent how the patient was treated like a
dog and forced to bark like a dog by her abusers (Bryant et al., 1992). Or,
the child may have been forced into sexual behaviors with animals, leading
to a view of the self as an animal or as bestial and inhuman. Hendriksen et
al. (1990) described a patient who was forced by her parents to eat out of a
dog bowl and to act like a dog. Her father then involved the family dog in
acts of bestiality in his abuse of her. Any reference to sex made her feel as if
she “turned into a dog,” and she did indeed then act like a dog.Further, as
Hendriksen et al. (1990) stated:
Working with animal alters is helpful in addressing the extreme guilt
resulting from participation in acts felt to be inhuman.
[...]
Animal parts may also express evaluations of one’s own experience metaphorically.

You might find this helpful, or you may not.
We have M, who took a lot of being treated as an animal, eating things humans wouldn't eat etc, as well as to accept and fully take in the love our pet could provide.

Best of luck figuring this out.
- Lin

Hello,

do you have Understanding and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder: A relational approach as a real book or as a PDF-file? or an internet version or something like that?

I would love to have an internet version or PDF of that book, if you have one, could you send me a copy?

I have a PDF excerpt from the book. It's 23 pages long or so. I don't know how to send it to you How do I send a PDF?

Is there a way to send a PDF file without using e-mail? We're not comfortable giving it out.. Sorry I hope we can get it to you some other way though

ManyHearts wrote:Does anyone know why/how some people with DID have made animal alters and fantasy alters?

Here is my understanding on splitting:
First let me address the idea of [b]splitting - We do not split. All humans begin life as a bunch of neurons and when one has DID, those do not integrate due to trauma. So we do not split. It is just the opposite - which is what the top experts that research and write on DID try to get people to understand, but that old notion is so ingrained! It's hard for people to let go of it. Behavioral states of an infant will begin to integrate, these will form ego states or personality parts. If you have DID - you will have alters because the parts did not integrate. They are isolated from the other parts. Make sense?[/color][/i]

My understanding of introjects:
I totally agree with you that introjects are created out of the knowledge of kids. All humans do this however, not just those of us with DID. Introjects of parents are quite common in all humans. With DID as usual things go beyond the norm.

Here is a story:

The evolution of Curious George the Doll
As a child I had a curious George doll. A host at that time created an introject of this doll. The furry little guy started out trying to protect a certain child alter - Joy, who dearly loved him. Joy turned to her doll as her only source of comfort and OUR mind created this introject. Of course she could not just will an introject to be created - but the mind is an incredible place and with suggestion it can and will do all sorts of things..

The little doll was not powerful enough to survive inside my system with all the other introjects such as T-rex, Great White Shark, etc.... and certainly was not powerful enough to keep Joy safe from Father - even though he would come out and take the abuse for her. (note her that Joy was the ANP (host) and the doll was the EP - part that holds the trauma memories). The doll grew - he became a Father introject that appeared as a Gorilla that is as big as a house! Gorilla attempted to protect all the child alters from Father, but this was of course impossible. We had to create many more protectors to help with this task.

Fast forward in time - I become an adult and the real Father is out of my life. Many of the Father introjects begin to do what Father did. They abuse the alters inside - now to keep them quiet. They must not tell about the abuse or of their existence. Gorilla does horrible things.

Fast forward in time more - Even later in life. Gorilla began to feel shame and guilt for what he was doing. He became blind - unable to look at his past deeds, but he continued to do them.

Fast forward to present - I have been working with Gorilla. He no longer abuses anyone inside, instead he is now triggered to come out immediately again to protect those inside from any perceived threat. I gave him trance logic/magic to fix his eye sight, but it hurts to open his eyes. It feels like Father is still digging sand into them so he cannot see what Father is doing to our little sister. IF Gorilla can come present (be in the here and now and not triggered by memory of the past), then he can now see without the pain. I am still working with him and he has a long way to go.

So - Yes, a child can create an animal alter.

If you have DID - you will have alters because the parts did not integrate. They are isolated from the other parts. Make sense?

Well.. Yes and no. Could you explain a bit further? What do you then call it for when we split (or what have you) later in life? That ego state was not there from the beginning or they would have memories from before that set age when they were needed, right? I'm not trying to discuss here - just trying to understand

lifelongthing wrote:

If you have DID - you will have alters because the parts did not integrate. They are isolated from the other parts. Make sense?

Well.. Yes and no. Could you explain a bit further? What do you then call it for when we split (or what have you) later in life? That ego state was not there from the beginning or they would have memories from before that set age when they were needed, right? I'm not trying to discuss here - just trying to understand

Let us begin a new thread for this. It is a complicated subject! And a fascinating one!

ManyHearts wrote:Does anyone know why/how some people with DID have made animal alters and fantasy alters? I am not an expert on alter creations, but I think that with a normal split you will get two humans.

I think that they get created out of the knowledge of a kid. They see those creatures in movies, books, the zoo, and they see their behaviour the same way. so once a certain type of abuse happens, and the kid needs something for protection or caring, they create that animal or fantasy alter because their knowledge of that animal/creature is what they need to survive the abuse.
This is just a thought, I'm not sure if it might be true. Does anyone else know more about this?

Serious mode activated!

Firstly, I wouldn't say there are any "normal "splits"". DID is a very personal disorder, nothing dictates that you "should" have human alters or animal/fantasy alters. Just because an alter isn't human, doesn't make it less "normal".

Secondly, alters come from a mixture of a child's imagination/knowledge, and primal/animalistic parts that are separated from the others (as Tylas put it). So you are correct in your thoughts, and Tylas is also correct in their explanation. Animal and fantasy alters come from parts that "stayed" primal and animalistic (after all, humans are animals themselves), and from a child's imagination/knowledge of that animal/fantasy creature.

Think of it this way: When a baby is developing, they learn things like not to just cry for food, but to use words and ask for it. Or to not bite/hit things and people they don't like, but to simply express their dislike with words or walk away. Learning things like this "humanizes" the child, and makes them less primal, and more civil. Parts that are primal and that usually become animal/fantasy alters are parts that never went through that development/learning stage of being "humanized". Mix those parts together with a child's imagination/knowledge and boom, animal/fantasy alter.

Hope that made sense/helped.

That is rather interesting. Though i wonder if, in another way, someone (host and/or alters) being therian could effect it too. It seems it would only make sense.