What is this?

 

 

Some would insist it is a vase.

Others would swear it is two faces.

Neither of them is right.

It is both a vase and two faces.

It needs the existence of the vase to get two faces.

It needs the faces to make a vase.

Yet it is impossible to see them all at once.

Try.

You see the vase and then something switches and there are the faces.

It is a paradox.

Paradoxes cannot be separated from each other and doing so leads to misunderstandings, conflict and even war.

We live in a world that is comfortable with dualism and all its consequences. It is black or white, right or wrong.

It is hard to commit to paradoxes. They don’t diplomatically pretend that it is all shades of grey. They insist it is black And white at the same time. Without compromise.

 

 

DID is full of paradoxes. And we need to learn how to tolerate and embrace them.

ANPs are like vases.

EP s are like faces.

We see either one or the other. The switch is real.

One needs to exist to make the other possible.

They cannot be separated, it is one picture.

Acknowledging only one and denying the other creates conflict. It is not truthful.

Even when the vase is an abuser-loyal part and the faces are trauma-holders.

The paradox stands.

It is brought to peace in the wholeness of the picture, not in its separation.

We need to change our mind about what we are seeing.

It is a reversible figure. A paradox that does not have one right answer. Several things are true while they are mutually exclusive. Separating paradoxes takes away our chance of understanding them on a deeper level. It is not about arguments for different perspectives. It is about Being.