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Disociative Identity Disorder - Blog Posts
So, I like many a person ended up randomly scrolling through videos and the like in boredom one day, and ended up on a channel called DissociaDID.
And that got my mind a spinning after watching some of the media.
Specificaly, what if Wukong had DID?
I will note, I don't think this is an idea I would openly write a full story about for others to read because I don't think I could do this mental disorder the justice it deserves in my opinion.
However, I thought I might put out the idea for how it happened and my thought for alters and their jobs.
First off, what would lead Wukong to develop DID?
First thing I need to say is we don't know the timescale of Wukong's early life, all that is stated in his tale is that he came out fully formed. But that does not mean he came out fully formed mentally, so within the first 7 years of his life he could have developed amnesia barriers as a coping mechanism for all the trauma he dealt with, and then it developed into DID because of the separation of memories.
As of right now, my main thoughts for what lead to Wukong developing it are as follows.
Wukong back when he was just Shí Hóu (what is currently believed to have been his name or title before he went to gain his first immortality) the original dominate male of Wukong's tribe bullied, beat up, and generally tried to kill Wukong. Perhaps the leading male even put forth the "go beyond the waterfall to become the king thing" and enticed Wukong into doing it in an attempt to have Wukong die by drowning, with it partially working and almost killing the young monkey king, but instead Wukong found the temple and became king, displacing the old monkey as the alpha, but they would make continuous attempts to kill Wukong even after.
As time went on perhaps the former alpha male died in a very gruesome way in front of Wukong, with maybe one or two of the kinder monkeys in the group dying of disease, putting the fear of death through means that Wukong wouldn't be able to control into his mind, leading Wukong to travel potentially days alone on a raft with little to no food in an attempt to find immortality like he had heard of being possible from some demon monkeys.
Then once on shore Wukong met humans and they feared and degraded him for not being human, for their belief he was a demon or the like, perhaps even attacking him till he learned to hide and found a link to what would lead him to an immortal.
Then the immortal had the same beliefs as the other humans and shut him out from learning, but Wukongs persistence led the man to give him a chance to learn, leading to Wukong being in an environment where all those learning with him initially hated or despised him, perhaps to the point of doing things to try and get Wukong to leave but over time they just became indifferent to Wukong, still being racist but identifying that Wukong was dedicated to his craft.
I can't say for sure but that altogether feels like a pretty good recipe for developing DID.
Next up, Wukong's alters.
First up, the original Wukong Shí Hóu, he/they are a trama holder, and would have been the earliest host before a new one developed in the wake of becoming King and needing to not be fearful of the former dominate male or risk losing the better life he was gaining. Leading to them being a "little" in the sense that they no longer aged beyond the point of no longer being the Host of the body. Shí Hóu would act most like a young orphaned monkey.
Next would be a Persicutitory Protector that would have formed to protect Shí Hóu from attacks by the male while making it clear to the little one that it is their fault they are continuing to be abused because he never fought back against the male. Their title would be Jingwēi and they would probably act most like a hostile male monkey, probably partially forming from a fragment of the aggressive male.
A soother alt would have probably formed around this time as well to help calm Shí Hóu down after traumatising confrentations with the dominate male. Their title would be Guānxīn and they would probably be most like a mother monkey Shí Hóu watched from afar, and probably later on would have gained traits from watching human and demon parents.
Formation timeline-wise, next to form would probably be a fragment with the title Shuî who formed from Wukong's water based trama and might be part fish. They would not have to major a personality and and be more a mindset revolving around being unable to drown due to being part fish.
Timeline wise the next personality to form would be Wukong, though he wouldn't have that name at the time and would have gone by Monkey King. He would be the main Host of the system from the time of becoming King to present.
Some time during Wukong's travels 4 more alts would form. Zhìzhê who would be the Gate Keeper of the system controlling who has access to what memories, who is in front, and keeping track of all alts within the internal space. Guówáng who would be a co-fronting primary protector to Wukong helping with protecting the body from harm and with fighting off trouble. Yêmánde being a faceless persecutor, repeating back the hate and fear spewed by the masses of humans (and later demons and celestial beings) towards Wukong, being a constant reminder of Wukong not being similar to anything at all. And lastly Liu er Miho, AKA Macaque, who at the time was a trauma holder persecutor like Yêmánde representing the fear of the unknown and those who speak and hide in the shadows.
Some time during Wukong's training under Pitu Zushi (though the show seems to be calling them Master Subodhi, but that could be a mixup on my part for the journy's immortal teachers name) or perhaps some time after Wukong's trip into the Diyu when taking the front for a moment Macaque used some of Wukong's power to create a clone for him to break himself off into that later became their own person sans memories of being part of Wukong.
3 more major alts and potentially one minor one would form from Wukongs learning immortality onward. First Lâoshī, Wukongs desire to be a protector and a caregiver/teacher to others, Huô forming from Wukong's traumatic experiences with fire and being a trauma holder who can disable the body unintentionally by making them temporarily blind (may also have some relation to the molten iron and copper fed to Wukong), Geisha who would be a sexual defender and trauma holder for the system (because you can't convince me that someone over the years wouldn't have tried to forcefully mate Wukong for power), and lastly Tang an interject persecutor protector that formed based off Tripitaka who would hurt or berate Wukong for his "violent" ways while reminding and suggesting less lethal methods.
My thoughts on how MK and his group figure this out is less certain.
As of right now, my main idea for how it happened is something involving fire triggers Huô sending Wukong into a blind panic running away with MK trying to follow with maybe one other behind him and they hear a difference in how Wukong is speaking or talking to himself and realise something is up. Later doing research and it clicking over enough time what is happening and leading MK and the others trying to get Wukong (as well as Mac (because learning you were a piece of the very person you hate can't be good for the psyche)) some professional help to at least partially recover from all the trama.
What do you all think? Have Ny ideas of your own to add? I would love to hear them.