Multi-Level Multiple Personalities (Me)

I just read The Flock, another multiple's autobiography. And I marked a couple of passages to repeat here.

In a section clipped from her therapist's diary, there is something along the lines of what I wrote in my last post here. She groups the personalities, of whom there are dozens, into three groups. The first group are the 'autonomous personalities', "who are truly well defined and complete enough as individuals to be able to function autonomously, without the assistance of the others. Each appears to have as full a range of dispositions and capabilities as any individual person.... Then there are the special-purpose or 'single-motive' personalities, who have clearly defined tasks - such as organizing files, cooking, or cleaning house - and seem to have no interest in holding the outside consciousness after they have completed their tasks...." There is a third group as well, "'past-keepers', personalities who hold some experience or knowledge from the past. They fit into the system... by hiding memories that might prevent the autonomous personalities from functioning."

So for me, Sam, Kiara, and myself are all first-group autonomous personalities. At one time, I would have put Rubi into the second group, but I get a range of emotions from her now, not just hate, so I would call her autonomous as well, I think. Jarett, Cherish, and Lynn seem to be special-purpose personalities, and I don't know of any past-keepers. Or perhaps Silent One is one of those. I think this model has some use. By not expecting the same depth and fullness from each alter, perhaps I can allow each to fill their own niche more comfortably.