About Us
Zensenbutai.com is a website written and designed by members of the Flatlanders, a plural system residing on the East Coast of North America. A plural system is a group of people operating within one body, and who are recognized by the law as one individual with one legal name. Being in a plural system is referred to as multiplicity or plurality. We stand by the belief that this can occur without being considered mental illness, and without qualifying as DID under the DSM-IV. The only thing that is necessary to be plural is the experience of being plural. When several people have one body and one legal identity, that is plurality.
Zensenbutai.com serves many purposes, but its primary goal is to discuss issues specific to plurality and plural systems, especially the influence of mainstream culture and the failure of mainstream psychology to properly study the phenomenon of multiplicity. We, the Flatlanders, personally disagree with both sides of the major controversy over whether DID is a false illness invented by doctors, because both sides do not recognize a third possibility, which is that multiplicity can and does exist without the myths and facets associated with the aftermath of Sybil, recovered memory therapy, and the mass misdiagnoses of the 80s and 90s. We disagree with the hardline stance of the FMSF that all plurality is invented by therapists or patient groups, and we disagree with many self-proclaimed experts who insist that multiplicity is always a disease which must be cured.
We believe that the portrayal of plurality in both popular and artistic media is both inaccurate and dangerous, as this is often the primary introduction that non-plural people have to the concept of plurality. Just as it is dangerous to stereotype by race and sex, it's dangerous to stereotype plurality. The vast majority of systems bear no resemblance to the depictions shown in books and films such as Fight Club, Psycho, and Session 9, and though plurality is often depicted as an "easy insanity defense", in reality, this is also completely unsupported by legal records. The stereotype of the plural system as uncivilized, uncontrolled, and irresponsible is the largest obstacle to systems' rights. As long as non-plurals pass on these myths as facts, responsible plural systems are effectively forced to hide their plurality in order to avoid the fear and anger of non-plurals. As long as plurality is seen as only existing as a disease, and never occurring in a natural, non-disordered form, natural plural systems are forced to hide their plurality to avoid being pressured into unnecessary therapy, medication, and integration treatments.
Zensenbutai.com is here to communicate to the world at large that to be plural is only that: being plural. It is real, it is not a disease, and hiding it is not going to make it go away.
