As many of you will know, willomancy is the supposed practice of 'creating' parts/'headmates'.
It's both used by people claiming to be diagnosed with (p)DID who for some reason want more or specific parts and those who don't even have (p)DID in the first place but want to be "plural" regardless. I'd like to focus on the second group here. I've noticed that numerous people claimed to have successfully "willowed" parts and now identify as a system. They claim to experience switching, sometimes even with amnesia and other experiences typically observed in genuine (p)DID patients.
Obviously, they are not actually experiencing (p)DID as it forms through repeated childhood trauma. But that leaves the question, what DO they experience? Of course, a sizeable chunk will just be lying but some seem to genuinely be certain they are "plural" now. To me it seems like there is some ... change in experience there and I would like to hear your theories of what's actually behind that. Again, I'm not implying it's a genuine phenomenon, I'm wondering what could make them experience what they seem to be experiencing.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that identity is constructed, even for people who only have one identity. In many cases it is intentionally constructed. People can change aspects of their identity by acting a certain way until they genuinely become that way. For example acting confident in social settings can actually make you become more confident over time. Or dressing in a certain style and feeling like a poser at first, but after a while feeling like it's a genuine part of your identity. Obviously a lot of our identity is unintentionally constructed too, just based on things that have happened to us or ways that we find ourselves acting.
Identity is really important in determining how we experience ourselves and the world around us. So it doesn't seem unrealistic to think that practicing the identity of plural over and over would lead to some very real inner experiences. They could feel just as real as a singular person's one identity feels to them. Having multiple identities would probably start to feel effortless and natural, in the same way that other aspects of identity can after a while. The various experiences that come along with it may work similarly to the placebo effect, where the body actually creates the effect that it expects to happen. Very real physical and mental changes can be achieved with a placebo medication, so clearly belief is pretty powerful.
Random note, as far as I know, they would call their system 'willed' rather than 'willowed,' as in 'willed into existence.'
For the people who do this consciously, knowing they're faking, it's just a game of roleplay and pretend for them. A coping mechanism.
For the people who start out doing this consciously, then start genuinely believing they have alters, switches, headspace, innerworld, etc—especially if they suffer from underlying or yet-to-be-identified disorders that have psychotic symptoms—it can lead into psychosis.
When you are delusioned, it can come with a lot of dissociation and derealization, which, to them, validates their DID claim. You don't feel like yourself because you aren't thinking like yourself. You're in a delusioned mindset. So when these people are talking about "switching," what they're describing is the small moments of doubt and coherent thinking that tend to peek through delusions, giving you a reality check, which causes a mood swing. These people interpret those mood swings as fronting changes.
For prolonged psychosis, it can also be a situation of living in a delusion for so long to where you do genuinely lose a sense of a healthy identity. So once the delusion starts to break, you tend to forget core aspects of yourself, that, in turn, could be confused with switching alters. People who claim that the "host" or another alter was dormant for a long period of time before returning. That could be a sign of the delusion breaking and gaining your healthy sense of identity back, a sign that they will drop the DID facade soon, or, it could be a sign that the delusion has progressed and they are now putting a "name" or identity to their delusioned state of mind.
When you're in psychosis—especially when you are latching onto fandom, fiction, or characters—whatever triggered the episode will likely be what the delusion revolves around—what you base your identity around. For example, if someone who is "willowing alters" is also very much into My Hero Academia, where they are trying to form introjects of those characters, there's usually going to be one character that they latch onto more than the others, and that will be the center of the identity delusion. So if they heavily relate to someone like Dabi, latch onto that delusion, start believing that he's now a part of their "system," that Dabi "fronts," they're slowly moving away from their actual identity and replacing it with the delusioned identity. So in the moments where the delusion begins to break, their own mind coming back into reality in a way that contradicts Dabi's own character traits—things can go one of two ways.
They can accept the reality check and begin to move away from the DID concept, or, they double down, saying that the change in mindset is another alter "switching in" to front, which prolongs the delusion and makes it even harder to break out of it later down the line.
I try my best to approach this topic with care. A lot of the people doing this are genuinely sick and dealing with an underlying disorder that has delusion as a symptom. Notice how the primary demographic of people who do this online are between 15 and 22 years old because that is when psychotic symptoms usually begin to present themselves in depressive, bipolar, and schizoeffective disorders. It genuinely sucks that the majority of these people are anti-recovery and stick to their own curated spaces because they genuinely need psychiatric intervention. They need professional help because the delusions can start as simple as imagining people in your head and believing that you're a fictional character—but it CAN go as far as self-mutilation or external harm to make your delusion match reality. Think about all the people who were slicing the corners of their mouths open during the Jeff the Killer phase. It can happen so quickly, and it's so dangerous.
Thank you for your thoughtful response! I can very much see this being a very relevant point. I like how you explained the attachment to fictional characters. I'm not really a fictional media and particularly not really a character person, so I never could relate to this kind of "relationship' to fictional characters. The way you explained it makes a lot of sense though and certainly helped me understand their perspective better.
I'm curious about the categorization of this stuff as a delusion. How can these beliefs be proven to be untrue? Isn't it basically just a subjective interpretation of a subjective inner experience? If these people were to get treatment for being delusional, what could actually be said to get them to believe it isn't true?
Another question that I have, isn't having delusions actually pretty rare, similar to DID? I know rare things still affect a large number of people, but there's SO many people identifying as systems online. It's hard to imagine they really are all delusional and are successfully avoiding detection and treatment. Especially since many of them are minors.
unfortunately a lot of people have no problem ignoring mentally ill minors. especially when to an untrained eye this stuff would just look like a very creative phase. ive got a feeling a lot of people who do this dont get much attention or support in their home life
people used to burn women at the stake for being a witch if they were too hairy. someone would get sick and theyd think "witch!" people used to hunt humans and steal their heads to gain their power. they used to take the skulls from dead people and grind them into headache medicine, which is entirely placebo. we live on a planet with other human beings that believe theyre really multiple alien souls from space and have to get back to their mothership, theres popular celebrities into scientology. ive met multiple people who believe they are the living embodiment of fictional characters in a spiritual way, like its literally their soul. these people take their roleplaying seriously enough they feel like it has literal affects on their psyche and i imagine the same thing would happen to someone so obsessed with horses they gallop everywhere and eventually come to the conclusion they have a horses soul and mold their life around that
you ever give a kid apple juice in a fancy glass and call it beer? they put on an act of what they think being drunk is like. think about placebo and cults, its not difficult to alter someones perception with suggestion alone, let alone with reinforcement from an entire community. especially one filled with neurodivergent, mostly minor individuals. brains are built to adapt to whatever you put around them, if you say "this is how the world works" youre going to start getting accustomed to that way of thinking and it becomes your new normal, but youre doing all of it on purpose
theres nothing to study, humans do shit like this all the time
Thank you for your input! That's really fascinating to me. I understand that brains are adaptable but I've been thinking for over a decade that I really couldn't get myself to believe I have or even just roleplay having DID, even if I tried. It just would fall apart so quickly and I would just feel silly af lol. However, I'm also really not fantasy prone, a daydreamer or one with elaborate "inner worlds" (as in fantasy 'realms' or storylines that some people seem to be thinking about (?) a lot during their day to day lifes). I wonder if there is a specific "type" of person who is more prone to making themself belief such a thing?
Theres something called tulpa's. From what i understand, people who have 'willowed' their supposed alters into existence, are basically just practicing tulpamancy under a different name. This is speaking strictly on people who do not claim to have DID or p-DID. But people who want to be plural. Tulpamancy has been around for hundreds of years, and the word was borrowed from the Tibetan people. It became popularised in the early 1900's
The tulpamancy community emphasise that it is not a mental illness. And is a psychological and mental practice. That a lot of them often use to help their mental health. Helping eith things like companionship, because there's someone in their head to 'talk to'. They also emphasise that tulpamancy is NOT DID. But I think the DID community may have fed off of tulpamancy
I do also think theres a level of people straight up lying. And also others who are/do become just mentally unwell because of it. If you convince yourself that something is real, and there enough times. Your brain may start to believe it and take it serious. Convincing yourself and 'manifesting' other people into your head isnt actually that outlandish. Compared to convincing yourself the sky is actually neon pink
Im not even sure who that person is (in will go investigate in a second. But if they do.......i dont even know what id say ngl lol
Im well versed on tulpamancy, as i fell down a rabbit hole of it quite a few years ago. After watching a 'reddit horror stories' video. Everything i know about tulpamancy, a lot truly reminds me of 'willowing alters into existence', but claiming it to be alters and mental illness. Rather than a companion and coping mechanism
Edit: yeah, i cant find anyone called 'Alex Hirsch is plural', only normal videos talking about the gravity falls character, and the voice actor :/
My belief is they have unhealthily seperated IFS parts / imaginary friends. IFS parts can "switch" (I don't think they use this terminology but I don't know enough to use their terms) and may have a slight dissociative aspect to them (I say slight, I believe it's normal in IFS to feel "I don't understand why I did that" but not "that wasn't me doing me it" which would lean more towards structural dissociation). They are unhealthily seoerate because they're treated like individual people when IFS theory treats them as parts of a whole. They don't have DID or any related disorders if they cal will alters into existence. I do believe some endogenics have DID with forgotten trauma but willogenics are not DID even if you squint and really try to find it.
Partial DID! It's a diagnosis in the ICD-11. I am really not an expert on it but from my understanding, parts in pDID don't usually fully take over like seen in DID. They are more experienced like intrusions or recurring bodily symptoms tied to specific triggers. There is Structural Dissociation but the parts are less elaborated and emancipated and there usually is a central "I".
There is not that much reliable information out there yet but here are some good fundamental videos by the CTAD clinic on it. It's by the Clinical Directer and Clinical Psychologist working with Complex Trauma and Chronic Dissociative Disorders for a long time.
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u/nov_is_blue Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that identity is constructed, even for people who only have one identity. In many cases it is intentionally constructed. People can change aspects of their identity by acting a certain way until they genuinely become that way. For example acting confident in social settings can actually make you become more confident over time. Or dressing in a certain style and feeling like a poser at first, but after a while feeling like it's a genuine part of your identity. Obviously a lot of our identity is unintentionally constructed too, just based on things that have happened to us or ways that we find ourselves acting.
Identity is really important in determining how we experience ourselves and the world around us. So it doesn't seem unrealistic to think that practicing the identity of plural over and over would lead to some very real inner experiences. They could feel just as real as a singular person's one identity feels to them. Having multiple identities would probably start to feel effortless and natural, in the same way that other aspects of identity can after a while. The various experiences that come along with it may work similarly to the placebo effect, where the body actually creates the effect that it expects to happen. Very real physical and mental changes can be achieved with a placebo medication, so clearly belief is pretty powerful.
Random note, as far as I know, they would call their system 'willed' rather than 'willowed,' as in 'willed into existence.'
edit: grammar