Quote:
Originally Posted by tiggerandcrew
My alters are very aware and accept that I am the adult or the core self. Even at that, they want to have clothes that they like and we have compromised with adult clothes that might have a Pooh on it. One of my younger alters really wants their style. Do the alters see themselves in their young bodies when they are out or do they see the 60 year old body? Any ideas on how I can get them to really understand the appropriateness of one style for them is not appropriate for what other people would see a 60 year old wear.
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most if not all my alters were what we call categorical....(the dsm calls it distinct) that means they had their own jobs, purposes, reasons for being and way of being..
in other terms that meant that they had their own...
thoughts
reactions
jobs
purposes
reasons why they were there
clothing style
preferences
way of perceiving their self and their environment..
in other words yes they had their own idea of what they looked like. but because they also resided with in my body they also knew what I looked like.
example Red perceived herself and showed herself to the world by wearing clothing that contained the color red or black, had an angry attitude, when in control of the body the posture was full out anger, image of herself was a strong firm body, long brown hair...but she knew she lived inside of a body that was average and I preferred a variety of neutral colors with an occasional splash of color.
because of the diagnostic criteria here in america every internal system of alters has at least two alters that do have their own job, purpose, reason for being, their own way of being and perceiving their environment.
some like me have lots more others only have two and others have alters that are in between two categorical alters and a whole internal system of categorical alters.
I know some people who only have two of these type alters and the rest are alters that are not so vastly different from the host. I know people who's whole internal system of alters were categorical. everyones internal system is how ever they needed it to be in order to survive.