Personality Types

*Spiritual: These are the teachers and trainers of the group. They hold much wisdom and can be compared to Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi.

Have you ever looked into the eyes of an abused or sick child and thought that they looked wise beyond their years? There is something about trauma that teaches us much about life....things that a person normally learns as they grow and mature through the years. But traumatic experiences have a way of stealing precious time from a child....they don't have the luxury of years to learn how to survive in the world we inhabit. These personalities are the ones that help the child stay in touch with God and with that inner core of who they were meant to be.

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*Data Keepers These are the personalities who retain the knowledge and information concerning each personality and each life happening, but have very little (if any) emotion regarding it. You can compare these guys to R2D2 and C3PO.

Have you ever heard a person talk about "being outside of their body, watching what was happening"? This is called dissociation, and all people will experience this to a minor degree at some points in their life. This is a common coping skill for dealing with traumatic events, whether it's something that we see happen (as an accident) or something that is happening to us (serious illness or injury). It is only when the trauma is so severe and happening to a very young child that an alter personality may be created to deal with the situation. This is dissociation at it's most extreme.
It is the data keepers who stand outside of the body and watch what is happening. They have very little emotion regarding the event because it is not happening to them....they are simply observing. Also, in the case of a complex system of personalities, it is the data keepers who keep track of the who, why, when, and where concerning each alter.

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*Warriors: These are the strong, protective alters who take care of the others. They are the Han Solo, Chewbaca, Princess Leah, and Lando of the the internal system. If a weaker personality is being threatened in some way, one of the warriors will step forward to deal with the situation. That doesn't necessarily mean that they will physically "fight back." They exist to protect weaker or younger personalities by taking the abuse themselves and shielding the others.

Often times these alters take on the personality of street-wise teenagers. They maintain an attitude of fearlessness....the "pull yourself up by the boot straps and get on with it" kind of thing. They're often the ones who tend to push people away - "I'm going to hurt you before you get a chance to hurt me" even when inside they are feeling desparate for someone to love them. My personality named Jo is a very good example of this. She was actually just one of many "teenagers" that lived inside.

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*Children: These little guys can be compared to the Ewoks. They are a combination of creativity, playfulness, spontaneity and loving affection. No matter how bad things get, these little ones will always be there.....waiting for the chance to be seen. It may just be that flicker in the injured person's eye at certain moments, but it's there. And even when no one else is aware of the children inside, they are busy at work. They are like small children everywhere....always busy, eager to help, gathering information.....always curious, always learning. They have a natural affection and love that is very helpful once therapy has begun. They are the ones who will initiate communication within, and help various personalities get to know one another.

In my case most of the adult personalities have been integrated (become part of the whole/core person), and it is the children who remain. We have come a long way in our healing process and for the most part switching is a rare occurence. Now days what triggers a switch is usually something that pops up unexpectedly on the TV screen. A frightened child will surface....often not speaking, just staring into space or cowering in their chair.
I am so blessed to have a husband who is loving and accepting. He almost always can see the switch immediately and has learned how to deal with it. He reassures the child that she/he is safe, that no one will hurt them here. He will ask who they are, but in many cases the alter who has appeared is a minor one who was never given a name. In that case he asks if they know who he is. They may not "know" him, but they know about him. We have successfully gotten the information through to the entire system that Rick is a safe person. If he gets no response from whoever might be sitting in my place, he just lets them be and goes on about his business. He is ever watchful to make sure that we are alright, but he has learned that given a little time we will work through our fears and things will return to normal again.

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*Difficult/Bad Alters: Many times certain personalities will be mistakenly labeled "bad" or "evil." It is such a shame when this happens because, as with all children, they believe what you say about them. These personalities can be likend to Star War's Darth Vader. As was finally revealed in the movie series, Darth Vader was born into the world as an innocent child. He started out his life with a positive purpose. He became a warrior with the intention of fighting evil. However, unlike the other warriors, he was unable to heal after life threw too much at him. He was hurt and angry and had no place to go with such strong emotions. He was vulnerable and seduced by "the dark side."
These are the personalities who become so filled with rage that they have no choice but to act out. The form that this negative behavior takes on is usually based on the gender of the abused person. Men tend to take out their rage on other people, while women internalize their feelings and will hurt themselves. I had many personalities who acted out their rage and anger by cutting and burning themselves. They seemed to have so much loathing for the helpless, victim alters and would try to hurt them in a variety of ways. They could feel nothing but the "negative" emotions of rage, anger, loathing...they had very little ability to feel physical sensations, so they didn't seem to understand that by harming the body they were actually harming themselves. It didn't make any difference to them, because once they had vented their feelings someone else would come to deal with the physical pain.
But in the end, after much therapy and healing, it was also these personalities who were strong enough to stand up for themselves and the others. They learned the difference between being aggressive and assertive, and how to get our needs met in a positive way. So just like Darth Vader, they returned to their positive roles and became some of our strongest assets.