all the emails I don’t send

Jul 21

This email was going to be sent to a supervisor, then I decided not to. It’s towards my PhD. The beginning bits have been stripped… revealing only the juicy bits:

I had a really interesting meeting with other autistic artists yesterday - we are doing a stimming arts project collaboratively and it ties into my research too. We got talking about "plurality" and this is something that for us ties into stimming and language.

I don't want to overwhelm you so no need to click on anything below - perhaps this is more to help me too to ensure I don't lose the research I've found but this idea that when we make art we create characters with their own stories including those of inanimate objects and other elements, including nature and other bits - each having their own thoughts and feelings, or being able to empathise with those elements and parts of self in each element. It's the coming together of feeling for and being with them when making art that touches upon this subject of being the heartbeat (and stimming) when they are all included together in a piece. (Maybe I am confusing) but yes, whilst I don't completely identify with DID (pluralism), I can also identify in the breaking down of "what happens" and "is happening" when processing all the elements/objects when attuning to practice as an autistic artist. Interestingly, all the autistic artists agreed that they identified with this idea of pluralism when attending to practice and it is "this" that enables the stimming to occur. This idea of multiple selves within the concept of one self when creating/making art (and stimming) and that this does not always exist externally of art-making. I do feel hearing other autistic artists talk about practice is an important element here.

I want to be very careful however because I know there's so much stigma and stereotype and I don't want it to become a "mental health" research project, this is more about what happens when stimming is allowed to happen and what is stimming.

We also talked about language and how it's not tourettes but that stimming through words is allowing ourselves to "tic" (stim) and allowing ourselves to repeat words, over and over again. They're all very excited about my PhD and want to contribute as a case study too so it's good to have this group of autistic artists to make with.

Like I told you yesterday there does seem to be a crossover with ancient religions and rituals.
Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for the space to talk about "what it is" and methods/methodology as this really helped me yesterday to discover new/other research to look to (and I did, all afternoon!)

Have a lovely summer and I'll be in touch towards the start of September,

Thanks,

Elinor

General Pluralityedit edit source

Intersectional Representation: LGBTQ+ and neurodiverse voices in transmedia fiction, Drak, Tynan, Ball State University December 2020

“Multiple Systems” versus Dissociative Identity Disorder: Life-Style or Mental Illness?, Sullivan, Megan; Lycoming College 2011

Multiplicity: An Explorative Interview Study on Personal Experiences of People with Multiple Selves, Gergő Ribáry, László Lajtai, Zsolt Demetrovics and Aniko Maraz, Department of Clinical Psychology and Addiction, Institute of Psychology 2017

Dissociative Disorders

Multiplex vs. multiple selves: Distinguishing dissociative disorders. The Monist, 82(4), 645-657, Hardcastle, V. G., & Flanagan, O. (1999)

A Phenomenological Inquiry into the Lived Experiences of Persons Diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, Hill, S. (2020)

Problem of “otherness” in dissociative disorder, Okano, K. (2019) (Warning: Author uses possibly offensive wording to interpret some people's testimonies.)