“Can the splitting of representations explain multiplicity? Not at all, for two reasons.20 First, a split is into two, not many. The splitting of self and object representations manifest polarity: self-object, good-bad, male-female, friend-foe, and so on, whereas alters generally don't (though they may). Second, hosts and alters are intentional subjects or agents, entities capable of uttering "I." Indeed, one may profitably regard alter as short for alter ego, literally "other I." A given "I" has intentional objects that are its respective self and object representations. In other words, a split representation, even of the self, is an object of thought, not a thinker, not a subject or agent or "I.” Dissociative Identity DisorderSplittingAlter PersonalitiesSplit PersonalityAltersSplit Personalities Book:Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond Source: Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond