A long time ago, like I’m talking pre-pandemic, must of been 2019.
I stumbled upon a sort of obscure organization geared toward educating clinicians seeking to learn about treating dissociative identity disorder and other dissociative disorders, called First Person Plural. However in order to find out more about it, you had to sign up for an e-mail list by paying for it.
I don’t remember what I did to manage it but I wound up finding a few old articles that were snippets, pieces and parts, in image or PDF format of the e-mails they would send out to people who paid and requested them.
And the e-mail was sort of laughably designed it looked like something that a 5th grader using mspaint could of done a better job at. And the quality of “academic resources” it provided was extremely low. Not only was it riddled with grammatical and editorial errors (I don’t think this was edited at all to say the least), it didn’t really have anything of sustenance in it.
A lot of it seemed like, lonely, elderly, women with, trauma. Who had banded together, created this group called First Person Plural, in order to cater to or reach out to other, lonely elderly traumatized individuals who were sad or depressed, low in life for one reason or another. Their ‘articles’ they wrote themselves, seemed to... cater toward, making individuals who wanted to sulk or felt, very emotionally vulnerable, sort of... welcome.
Then they maybe referenced or linked a DID material or two, like a book written by someone a long time ago. And then a bunch of cross-word puzzles. And, at the end, more sob stories, written by elderly, sad, traumatized people.
And then, information about meetings and websites, forums, etc. Where these people can connect. But they have to *pay* for tickets. A lot of, advertising. For this. So now, not only are you paying for your email subscription, but also, for access to a website, and, for tickets to meet n’ greets in person. Where they will have “speakers” and “pamphlets” to ‘learn more’ or get more connected with first person plural.
They sort of dress themselves up as a group seeing to educate young professionals looking to gain clinical experience and academic research into dissociative disorders, so they can become specialized or treat dissociative disorders specifically- or network with other professionals at treating dissociative identity disorder.
But I’m sort of scratching my head like, who is paying for these emails, who is going to this “forum” for “professionals only” and “exclusive meet n greets” and if they were passionate about raising awareness, why does the organization seem to be geared toward, raising funds- not awareness. What are they funds for... clearly not going back into hiring an editor for their email articles...
They claim it’s so they can get speakers and, print out informational packets and, “supporting the mental health community” whatever that means. And there is a lot of emphasis, a whole entire, page or two I remember, all geared toward, persuading people to donate money or join, etc. Sort of like churches give a really long spiel about why they need the money or why you should donate, before they send out the offering basket. While some people may have honest intentions- I am always skeptical when the e-mail article itself was just so unprofessionally designed.
Whoever pays for these is getting scammed big time and sort of emotionally manipulated and preyed upon, for their vulnerabilities. That was my perception anyway.
But I wasn’t too quick to stake a claim about first personal plural being a questionable organization because, I didn’t see anyone else talking about it and I used to like to give people the benefit of the doubt. The meetings they were having were all overseas, me being in the United States, so I wasn’t really able to investigate it further. I wasn’t really sure what I’d be looking for anyway.
But, just the whole thing was screaming scam to me already. It was also worrisome to me that, well, in this arena thats very academic and professional, there was no one regulating this, sort of the same way, that academic research papers, are regulated and theirs a lengthy process of, becoming a trust worthy author and, being peer reviewed and accepted for publishing, etc.
And then it made me realize the over all lack of regulation in regard to, dissociative disorders, their diagnosis, and their treatment- and I’m sure if you take it one step further regarding, legal issues, insurance issues pertaining to dissociative disorders it gets even muddier.
A lot of it seems to be a bit wishy washy and, like I said, unregulated. To say the least. Which is very concerning when you have vulnerable people involved, such as someone with dissociative identity disorder- who can be conned, manipulated, more easily. Given their inability to recall, the possibility of child-like or special needs alter being present. There’s red flags all over it to me.
But I figure, the NHS and law enforcement have most likely done their homework and surely if I’ve found out about such a thing, they know about it and are keeping an eye on it. I was, scratching my head though at why there weren’t more people on the internet talking about it.
Everyone is quick to talk about, well known switching channels such as, DissociaDID, Alternative Vlogs, The Cryptid System, Team Piñata. And thousands follow the drama surrounding kiwi farms, twitter, Patreon, instagram, reddit (summed up very well by drama coverage channels like Vangelina Skov)
And we have mental health awareness channels like Dr. Grande for example, commenting on it and dissociative disorders and drama in the dissociative identity / mental health community on the internet.
But very few of the people covering the ‘drama’ surrounding certain content creators have bothered to bring forward the information that has surfaced about them on various platforms- and the organizations they’re involved with- and a sort of full history or a better, comprehensive look into these organizations, and the people who run them.
So I found it very interesting that all of it sort of tied back to, first person plural. To see it come up in a video pertaining to the pottergate center (which is where DissociaDID *said* they received their official diagnosis) and the people linked to it- and their, questionable, connections, their questionable, beliefs, and intentions, etc. I am glad someone finally brought it up. You know? And is bringing to light a sort of questionable organization.
So here is the video I’m talking about
