So I read this earlier:

Mixed Apparently Normal and Emotional Parts

In some cases of dissociative identity disorder, some alters may be neither apparently normal nor emotional parts but a combination of both. This phenomenon is often associated with severe childhood trauma and can indicate that the trauma began at a very young age or that the trauma bled over into daily life in such a way as to prevent the normal differentiation between apparently normal and emotional parts. Parts may be more like either apparently normal parts or emotional parts, and some parts may still fit into the neat dichotomy entirely, but such systems might also have more blended parts. For example, there might be traumatic identity states who are mature, are capable of remaining rational and grounded, and have full access to their memories of the traumas that they experienced or have neutral identity states who struggle with intense emotions, both negative and positive PTSD symptoms, and have some degree of memory for what the traumatic identity states experienced (even if this knowledge of their history is inconsistent or mostly intellectual instead of emotional). This could even be thought of as a type of quaternary structural dissociation in which individual parts have their own internal ANP and EP states. Systems with these less defined boundaries are thought to struggle more than more traditional DID systems because their ANP are less able to separate themselves from the trauma and so present as normal.

and it resonated quite a lot with me. We have quite a few of these 'mixed' type parts, and I have wondered before about how or why that was. This theory makes sense to me... or at least gives me another tool for self understanding.
While growing up our family presented as completely normal to the outside world... and yet it could all switch in an instant. We have a few alts that function as front parts (as in take care of daily activities) but yet experienced some abuse (one in particular I am thinking of who has her own alter who took some of her more severe abuse); we have me, who used to be more internal and knew of abuse stuff in an intellectual way, but who now functions as host and leader of the system.
It just all makes me curious as to how it all develops and works. We had severe ongoing abuse in our daily life and from multiple sources since we were very young yet I would describe the way our dissociation works as 'fluid' - not as very distinct and separate as some people describe it. But at the same time it is distinct and separate. While there can be a 'bleeding' of knowledge, emotion and experience in the moment, there seems to be a clean up process of sorts that can effectively maintain the amnesiac barriers.
(Ha - does anyone else over-intellectualize everything like I do?!)
Anyway, I had long since accepted that our brand of our multi-fragmented nd sometimes fluid dissociation was exactly as it was in us because that was exactly as it needed to be, but it was interesting to read a theory that makes sense of it.
Anyone else relate to this?