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1. System origins
2. Media-inspired & identity terms
3. Social media terms

System origins

Terms you may see in online plural and system spaces. Some of these are widely debated, and many are not recognized by clinicians.

Plural / Plurality

An umbrella term used online to describe anyone experiencing more than one identity or mind in a single physical body, regardless of whether it meets clinical criteria for DID/OSDD.

Endogenic System (“Endo”)

An online term for a system that claims to exist without a trauma origin (e.g., born that way, created through thought). Widely contested and rejected by mainstream clinical psychiatry.

Traumagenic System

A system explicitly acknowledged to have formed due to repetitive childhood trauma (aligns with the clinical understanding of DID/OSDD).

Tulpa / Tulpamancy

Online reference to an alter or mind-state intentionally created through deep concentration, meditation, and thought exercises.

Mixed Origin

Systems claiming to have formed through a combination of trauma and non-traumatic factors.

Spontaneous System

Community term for systems claiming to have formed suddenly without identifiable trauma or conscious creation.

Syskid

Slang for a system composed primarily of young or adolescent alters, or an individual child alter.

Media-inspired & identity terms

Factive

An alter modeled after a real-world living or historical person (e.g., a celebrity, public figure, or acquaintance).

Fictive / Introject

An alter modeled after a fictional character from media (anime, TV shows, video games, books).

Source / Source Memories

The media or story a fictive originates from, and the pseudo-memories an alter remembers from that fictional universe.

Canon-Compliant / Non-Canon

Describes how closely a fictive’s identity or memories match their original media source.

Kinning / Otherkin / Therian

Concepts intersecting online system spaces. “Kinning” means deeply identifying with a character; “Otherkin” or “Therian” refers to the belief that one is non-human or animal on a spiritual or psychological level.

Singlet

An online term used by the plural community to refer to a person who does not have DID/OSDD or alters (a non-plural individual).

Social media terms

Fake-Claiming

Publicly accusing someone in online communities of pretending to have DID/OSDD or feigning symptoms for attention or clout.

Malingering (Online Context)

While clinically referring to feigning illness for tangible external gain (e.g., legal or financial benefits), online spaces use it informally to describe “illness faking” for social clout or peer acceptance.

System Hopping

An online belief that an alter can leave one person’s body/system and travel into another’s system (psychologically and physically impossible; widely debunked).

Syscourse

Short for “System Discourse” — ongoing online arguments regarding endogenic systems, fictives, typing quirks, or medical validity.

Typing Quirk

Distinct visual formatting, capitalization, or symbol substitutions used by specific alters when writing online messages (e.g., replacing specific letters with numbers).

Trigger Warning (TW) / Content Warning (CW) Bloat

The practice of requiring highly specific warnings for non-standard or everyday terms alongside standard trauma warnings.