As described at darkpersonalities.com and http://www.religioustolerance.org/mpd_did3.htm, an empowered
multiple is most simply one who does not see multiplicity as a
disorder. Empowered multiples generally see multiplicity as stemming from any number of causes: from people who were programmed by an
abusive cult, to people who were
born multiple, to people who were born multiple and also experienced
abuse which their multiplicity may even have
helped them deal with.
This places them in direct opposition to the most traditional clinical view of multiples, which views it as "multiple personality disorder" caused invariably by abuse splitting an otherwise functional person into many "personalities" or aspects of one person. In contrast, people in the empowered multiple movement usually see everyone as individual people who are all valid and deserving of respect.
There is also often a great emphasis on self (or selves)-determination; for example, while integration as a required "cure" for multiplicity is regarded with disgust, it is generally agreed that each system has to decide as a group whether integration is for them or not. Similarly, while psychologists' insistence on saying that all multiples are "created" by abuse is frequently scoffed at, it is generally agreed that it is important to respect what everyone feels caused their multiplicity. In some ways, the dialogue about "causes of multiplicity" resembles the early (and continuing) gay movement's dialogue about what makes people gay, which also involved many psychologists' theories about child sexual abuse.