A simple theory

See where the problems are Dino It's not written on your face from birth if you are a therian or not; that would take not only decades to get results, but also one huge sample to have a satisfying number of therians to build up conclusions :/

Also Dusty, your "experience" proves indeed that theriantropy cannot be acquired willingly, however I thought more or an unwilling appearance of it during that period; guess I should have been more accurate in my first post, sorry for that :/

(2015-08-06 19:47)Thorveim Wrote:  See where the problems are Dino It's not written on your face from birth if you are a therian or not; that would take not only decades to get results, but also one huge sample to have a satisfying number of therians to build up conclusions :/

That was my point when I said impossible; or at least what was implied

I'd say that examining behaviors is a shaky way to study whether or not someone is a Therian. It's based on identity, not behaviors, and considering the fact that anyone can act like an animal or feel they understand them through exposure or actually knowing a lot about them, it's better to ask someone about how they feel about themselves in terms of what, perhaps, they are (not in literal terms but in their self-image).

My old best friend and I acted like horses a lot in our youth and very strongly pretend to be horses because it was so freeing from human life. We loved them to death, but she's not a horse Therian and neither am I.

I also want to say that trauma-induced Therianthropy is, in my opinion, a very likely thing. People manifest coping mechanisms to trauma in many ways, and sometimes they aren't conscious. Sometimes the brain takes over to protect itself without warning. It happened with me and the death of my last cat. I started getting extremely attached to cat things, even things like wrappers or packaging with cats on them. I felt awful throwing them away, and it wasn't for five years that I realized it was all because, at the time of her passing, I couldn't really cope with it. Her death never sunk in, and I acted like it didn't bother me.

It still does. Sometimes talking about it gets me choked up, I take pictures of stuff that has cats on them, I sometimes kiss the cats on packaging before I throw it away (and I typically don't look when I do), I still have extreme attachments to all my cat stuff, and it's why I'm so terrified of thinking about my current cat dying, I wasn't even particularly close to my old cat like I am Temari now, and Temari's death is going to wreck me. My old cat went out into the woods to die and now I yell at my parents if my cat gets outside because I flat out do NOT want her out there. I never want to own another cat after her because I'm afraid to deal with the loss again. I haven't even had to deal with my dog's death yet, and I promise you, she's walking up to death's doorstep.

The idea that someone might wind up forming a nonhuman identity purely out of trauma and trying to cope with it, but not intentionally choosing said identity, isn't out of the question for me. I identified as a feline before my old cat died, which is why I don't believe my identity has anything to do with it, though it does make me more sensitive to topics involving harm to cats and whatnot.

Anyway sorry for my super personal ramble.

To my opinion therianthropy is there from the start. Even when it's a coping mechanism. In my case I picked a different coping mechanism than therianthropy and my therianthropy surfaced later on. Before that when I was young I was just being me. Looks didn't matter to me and I wasn't the kind of girl who looked into the mirror and did her hair. Though I always had the feeling that I didn't fit in even when I was with friend. I had fun, but something wasn't right.

So basicly whenever therianthropy surfaces I think it depends on the living conditions you're in as well. The age that is most prominent in the poll is the age I had when I went through a really bad time and it lasted for years. This made me go into a survival mode and I wasn't free to grow or mature properly. Hence my delay.

(2015-08-07 10:19)Wayward Vagabond Wrote:  I'd say that examining behaviors is a shaky way to study whether or not someone is a Therian. It's based on identity, not behaviors, and considering the fact that anyone can act like an animal or feel they understand them through exposure or actually knowing a lot about them, it's better to ask someone about how they feel about themselves in terms of what, perhaps, they are (not in literal terms but in their self-image).

But this is just it, right? There are people mimicking animals, and there are therians. There is an obvious difference, you can tell if someone really understands the animal from the inside out, or is just acting.

The perfect example are the so-called "feral children", kids who have been abandoned by their parents and ended up being raised by canines or other social animals. They are in the perfect environment to acquire an animal identity, only having had animals to compare to, to form any kind of identity. They end up obviously imitating animal behavior with no real understanding what is behind those animal expressions, and often anthropomorphizing those behaviours as nontherian humans otherwise do. This is not therianthropy.

I understand that being able to know when someone really understands an animals' emotion is tricky business, but I think there are ways to approach it that does not produce excessively biased results. Human nature may not be something that nontherians are very keenly aware of, but it is a thing and by studying the differences between human nature and another animal's nature, you can tell what sorts of things make sense for a human and what sorts of things do for another animal, and in this way you can tell if there is understanding of the animal or not.

LP,
Dusty

(2015-08-03 0:30)LycanTheory Wrote:  This was one of the topics that proved interesting at a therianthropy discussion panel I attended not too long ago. It was noted that everyone in the room aside from one guy discovered their therianthropy around this same transitional phase in life. I believe that the statistics would hint to a direct correlation between puberty and one's therianthropy becoming more prominent. Our own in-house poll seems to back this up https://forums.therian-guide.com/showthread.php?tid=1479&pid=31970

I too think puberty is involved in the awakening but it's funny, it seems only the more recent generations are therian, or at least admitting it. I wonder if the internet plays more into peoples awakening then puberty. The internet became more popular when our generation hit puberty.

(2015-08-09 1:00)MinneRinne Wrote:  I too think puberty is involved in the awakening but it's funny, it seems only the more recent generations are therian, or at least admitting it. I wonder if the internet plays more into peoples awakening then puberty. The internet became more popular when our generation hit puberty.

The kin community has existed since the term was coined in the early 90's, before that there was an elf community in the 60's. I would think that the internet helps with discovery, but it's also that no one until recently would have admitted they thought they were an animal. It's becoming more acceptable to come out and say now (granted it's still not really acceptable but much more so than previously). If you had admitted to identifying as an animal hundreds of years ago, you'd probably be accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake

(2015-08-09 17:49)Accalia Wrote:  

(2015-08-09 1:00)MinneRinne Wrote:  I too think puberty is involved in the awakening but it's funny, it seems only the more recent generations are therian, or at least admitting it. I wonder if the internet plays more into peoples awakening then puberty. The internet became more popular when our generation hit puberty.

The kin community has existed since the term was coined in the early 90's, before that there was an elf community in the 60's. I would think that the internet helps with discovery, but it's also that no one until recently would have admitted they thought they were an animal. It's becoming more acceptable to come out and say now (granted it's still not really acceptable but much more so than previously). If you had admitted to identifying as an animal hundreds of years ago, you'd probably be accused of witchcraft and burned at the stake

Lol i was thinking that too. There's also the fact of the other names that were used in the past; like weres (pronounced wear, as in werewolf) IE: instead of dragonkin it would've been weredragon and so on. Therians/otherkin have most likely existed for a very long time, but the terms have changed and it's safer to identify as one now than it probably was years ago.

I really think that understanding how identity works (most notably gender identity comes to mind) could open up our understanding of how Otherkin identity works.

I do think that Otherkinity could "develop", but in order for it to develop it would have to be there innately. So whatever factors are involved in developing non-human identity would have to be present at birth, but whether or not it develops or becomes manifested could depend on other things.

I have an identical twin sister, but psychologically we have our differences. I know she is autistic and bi-polar but I don't know if she is also Otherkin like me. I on the other hand am not autistic or bi-polar.

Ok, so i think I get the general accepted idea there is:

It is possible for theriantropy or otherkinity to develop during puberty, the condition being it already being present, even if unnoticed, in the first place.

Correct me if i'm wrong