Help me understand sense of agency please.

I now know that what broke my mind during my toddler years was the unbearable emotional pain that I felt from the constant abuse by my Brother. I loved him and needed him but he hated me.

So would emotional pain be a sense of agency for me?

I don't know hun.
I am not the part that knows what happened to us...so I can't speculate on what happens after recovering the original trauma... but I am also currently experiences a change and am starting to doubt what my purpose is now... I still know who I am and feel ownership of the body when I am in front but my primary role/job was protector and now I feel like I am no longer fit to be anyone's shield...but, oh hers a thought! Maybe our jobs haven't changed, but we have so now we need to learn how to do our jobs in a different way then before....idk, maybe?? Does that make any sense?? What was your job before you found out?

In the theory of structural dissociation what they term 'tendencies' is the equivalent of a 'sense of agency'. In SD they recognize that human beings have normal 'tendencies' towards certain behaviors, such as exploration, attachment, sexual expression, self protection etc etc. And in the theory of structural dissociation there are very particular patterns of alters that can be grouped or understood according to which human tendency they express.
For instance it is common for young 'cute' child like alters to contain and express the tendency for attachment. Likewise there are classifications of alters that hold the tendency for defense (protection). And yes there are classifications of alters that hold the human tendency for expression or experience of intense emotion.

I would guess that 'sense of agency' is another way of meaning 'expression of human tendency'. In relation to DID it just kinda means that an alter deals / carries / feels a particular experience or typical human activity (not necessarily in healthy adaptive ways though).

Hmm, like for front 'day time' alters (ones that deal with every day life rather than trauma events) typical splits or types of alters or expressions of human tendency or sense of agency are:

an unemotional alter who can deal with intellectual pursuits
a child alter who deals with attachment
a protector alter who keeps people at bay
an alter who fills a particular role (mother, worker)

some kinds of splits are common regardless of the type of trauma experienced because they are trying (in vain, often) to meet the basic human needs.

no thats not sense of agency.

sense of agency is a new diagnostic criteria for having DID here in america.

in its simplest psychological definition it means

what each alters job, purpose, reason for being created are...
(example Rainy was my alter who's job purpose, reason for being created was to handle any situation that involved sadness or storms or crying, Thelma was my alter who's job purpose reason for being was to handle sexualized situations, Red was my alter who's job, purpose reason for being created was to handle anger charged situations.)

how much control each alter and the one they reside with in have when in control of the body... when Rainy was in control of my body she could hold things, wrap up in blankets, move the from place to place. when thelma was in control of the body she could move the body, perform intimate/ dating, when red was in control Red could yell, scream hollar, rip things up.

how much awareness/ co consciousness the alters and the one they reside with in have with each other.... when rainy was in control she could not hear the others, talk to the others or share memories, thelma had limited co consciousness to where if Rainy was faced with an intimate situation thelma would take control or if Rainy could not find the toy or blanket thelma knew and was able to take control find the blanket then set it somewhere where sheknew the next time rainy was in control she would find the blanket. Red had more co consciousess and awareness. I the one they resided with in did not have much co consciousness and very little awareness of the others inside me. I heard voices but had no idea they were alternate personalities.

you can read more about sense of agency in my link at the bottom of my post marked sense of agency.

http://forums.psychcentral.com/disso...se-agency.html

I also know now that my Mom had regular contact with my alters but she did not see them as different from me. My Brother told me he had never seen any different personalities in me. But he never even told me why he hated me. He never had any civil conversation with me. He did not see his actions as abuse. I told him he had no credibility regarding me.

No one in my immediate family was willing to admit that I was abused. I do not know any of my alters so I do not understand how my system functions.