What is a system? What's going on here?

A system is, very simply, a group of people sharing one body. This can come about from a number of different reasons, from trauma, to active intent, to a variety of different little ways. The differences between systems are just as varied as the differences between any other people, and just as valid. While our Glossary has quick overviews of different terms relating to plurality, we will make an attempt to explain systemhood more thoroughly here.

The most commonly talked about origin for systems is trauma. Some people when faced with trauma, especially trauma that is prolonged over a period of time, will experience 'splitting', which is when the brain 'splits off' part of the brain's identity to better cope with the trauma, be it through providing companionship, providing a sense of protection, holding memories of the trauma, or other methods of self-protection and self-soothing. This kind of origin is called "traumagenic" by the system community. Some people believe that a system can only be formed by trauma if it started from a very young age, but we have not found any credible scientific papers that support this. Some people believe that systems can only be traumagenic and assume that systems are only capable of being disordered, but we feel that that ignores that the origin of a traumagenic system is to protect and maintain functioning during times of duress, and just like any other trauma response it can be functional or dysfunctional.

Another commonly talked about origin for systems is when they are purposefully formed, which is referred to as willogenic, parogenic, or tulpamancy. People may engage in actively creating headmates for many reasons, from wanting a friend to needing help getting through things and not knowing where else to turn. Some people may even create headmates from a desire to have them perform a specific role for them, from being a romantic partner to taking over their life entirely; creating a headmate specifically to force a job or role on them is very much advised against, however, as it's along the same lines as having a child to fix a marriage. Tulpamancy is controversial in the plural community, with many claiming it's cultural appropriation, however no sources have actually managed to prove this, and in fact while Buddhist monks do have a practice that many think tulpamancy is based off of, it's actually a separate practice called "sprulpa" that's got different methodology and goals. Tulpamancy as it exists today is fully a western invention, entirely separate from sprulpas, and it seems that the idea of 'tulpas as cultural appropriation' was started by a corner of the system community that insists that the only kind of system possible is traumagenic, in an attempt to discredit the tulpamancy corner of the community.

Some systems are created through spiritual reasons, by spirits joining in to assist and help run a person's life, or a group of headmates may be past lives all living this life together. Some systems simply were born as multiple people, an origin which goes back to psychology discussions about how children are born with different aspects of themselves compartmentalized. Some systems believe they became multiple due to a connection to the astral plane, or gateways to other worlds that allow other entities to join into their system. Some systems come about due to accidental tulpamancy, often when a writer, roleplayer, or daydreamer thinks about a character so much that they become their own person - a phenomenon pointed to in many accomplished authors talking about "characters getting a will of their own".