April 2025
DID without alters: how a misleading framework obscured my dissociation
After being diagnosed with DID, I expected internal parts to reveal themselves—just like the cultural narrative said they would. But those experiences never came. Instead, I faced severe dissociation without a sense of internal others. Over time, I realized my symptoms reflected structural compartmentalization, not multiplicity. This is about how the dominant DID framework can obscure the reality of dissociation when it doesn’t follow the script.
compartmentalization culture DID identity narrative plurality
7 minutes
What pathology is the diagnosis of DID attempting to capture?
Dissociative identity disorder is best understood as a disorder of pathological compartmentalization in which early childhood trauma leads to a structural failure to integrate memory, perception, and emotion. Although the diagnosis became defined through culturally compelling narratives of “multiple identities”, this framing reflects a metaphorical interpretation rather than the underlying mechanism. Over time, that metaphor shaped both clinical expectations and self-concept, reinforcing a model that emphasizes identity over structure. This post traces how that narrative took hold, how it obscures the actual pathology, and why shifting to a structural understanding of dissociation offers a clearer and more accurate view of the pathology the diagnosis of DID is attempting to capture.
compartmentalization conceptualization culture DID identity mechanism plurality
11 minutes
February 2025
Can you have DID without “alters”?
The identity-based model is one way to conceptualize dissociation, but it is not the only way. The assumption that DID inherently involves “alters” is a product of the DSM-5 framework, media portrayals, and community narratives—not an intrinsic feature of the disorder. DID is more accurately understood as a disorder of compartmentalization rather than identity fragmentation. Personifying dissociative states as “alters” is a cultural interpretation—one possible framing, but not an essential feature of DID.
Bromberg compartmentalization conceptualization culture DID identity plurality
4 minutes
Amnesia in DID is really just disavowal
Dissociative amnesia is often seen as an unavoidable loss of memory, but it is better understood as an active act of disavowal—a psychological rejection of unbearable experiences rather than passive forgetting. By understanding and deconstructing the mechanism behind my amnesia, I was able to significantly reduce it. Healing has not been about retrieving lost memories but about dismantling the barriers that kept them inaccessible in the first place.
amnesia conceptualization DID mechanism narrative plurality symptoms
7 minutes
December 2023
The sensationalized conceptualization of DID
Dissociative identity disorder is often conceptualized through the dominant cultural narrative of “multiple people living in the same body”. However, this framework is not the only way to understand the disorder, nor does it reflect everyone’s lived experience. In this post, I critique the sensationalized portrayal of DID and explore how this narrative has been shaped by therapeutic techniques, social influences, and media representation. I share my personal perspective as someone with DID who experiences dissociation as a compartmentalization of internal experience rather than as multiple identities. By distinguishing between the disorder itself and the cultural framework often used to describe it, I argue for a more nuanced, individualized understanding of DID—one that allows for diverse experiences rather than reinforcing a singular, dramatized portrayal.
autism conceptualization culture DID identity language narrative plurality
15 minutes