This is the best summary I could come up with:
Earlier this year, Dr. Matthew A. Robinson — a clinician and researcher at Harvard Medical School’s largest psychiatric facility, McLean Hospital — delivered a lecture to a room full of his peers.
He shared footage of a system cycling through eight elaborate neon outfits — complete with wigs and cat-like paws — attributed to their different alters, “overt changes” of appearance that Robinson felt were “not characteristic” of the DID patients clinicians see each day.
Kraft — whose alters include JA, a man-hating lesbian, and Kaleb, a hat-loving teenage boy — says Robinson’s presentation was distressing to her system and the other influencers he featured, who faced waves of abuse off the back of his lecture.
One of the biggest influencers in TikTok’s DID community, the A System, has shared livestream footage in which two of their alters — Asher and April, who each have different genders and senses of style — argue over how their body should be dressed and even use name tags to help viewers keep up with who is fronting at any given moment.
Greene published research earlier this year on the creative ways in which the DID community enacts their identity through TikTok, highlighting how insider humor and comedy are a large part of how systems perform connectivity with each other.
The hospital has “heard directly from many [people seeking treatment] that they learned about DID through social media,” the statement says, and Robinson’s lecture was designed to “encourage awareness and a dialogue” about how to best treat and understand these patients.
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Very interesting! I’ve been concerned about this trend for some time since I have some close experiences with it. That is: the faking part of it and the effect TilTok has on neurodiverse kids. In my kids’ school there’s a group of kids who suddenly all became DID after seeing the trend on TikTok. Even using apps to communicate which alter was fronting when. Sometimes switching many times during a conversation.
It was super confusing for my kid who wanted to believe and support their friends but in the end had to take some distance because it was exhausting and becoming a burden to deal with.
Tried talking to school about it but they were of no help. They thought it was just innocent play.
Of course we removed TikTok from our phones.
