Whats the difference between being multiple and being fragmented?”
The word “fragmented” was made up by doctors (probably Dr. Richard Kluft — he loves making up terminology) who mistakenly thought that every multiple started out as one whole person who fragmented into many. Some professionals use it to refer to people in a multiple collective (system, group, family) who seem to do only one thing when they are out front. (Sure, only one thing that the doctors ever see them do.) Or a kind of extreme form of compartmentalization of thought and action. This is controversial, and not everyone agrees. Some plural systems do experience some of their people as fragments only; sometimes they create them deliberately; they may call them shells. Some therapists get very into the idea that every new action is caused by a new person or ‘fragment’. We’ve had letters from multiples who have been through therapy with doctors who count a change in makeup or hair style, a new shirt or dress, or even a particular mannerism, as a new “part” or fragment. It was commonly
