Defining therianthropy: A bigger picture look at our identity

For the longest time I have identified with dragons. Ever since I knew what a dragon was, I felt such a strong bond with this mythical creature that it felt like myself. Even before I had the words to express it, I was otherkin.

The definitions for alterhumanity have been constantly changing throughout my time in the community. And with my knowledge of the history of therianthropy, it has changed a lot since then. For some reason, it feels so odd, yet so validating that there are so many definitions of therianthropy. Of course, like with anything else, therianthropy has its limits. What can and cannot be considered therianthropy isn't exactly defined, but somehow there.

My topic for discussion today is taking a larger look at therianthropy instead of just giving it one definition. What are the limits? What lines can we all collectively draw? What is your collective interpretation of the word 'otherkin'? Do you identify with more recent definitions, or feel more drawn to the older experiences? Overall, how much has our understanding changed?
I intend for this to be a more lengthy post and dive into quite a few topics, mostly talking about my own experiences and trying to assess everything about myself and the identity as a whole.

Some of the following may be a little choppy, difficult to understand, or unclear what the message is. If so, you're welcome to ask me to elaborate and I will happily.

Firstly, "Collectively processing therianthropy"

I understand that therianthropy is not something that can be understood via one singular definition, no matter how vague or detailed it may be. For years, we have been misunderstood and bashed and generally disliked by outsiders because of our otherness. I think this allows for more unity within the community, as we can identify as one thing while having many different personal experiences and the ability to relate to others and learn from others in our community.

When I first heard about therianthropy, it was pretty difficult to process everything since there's so much information on the subject.
Therian that shift, therians that are always shifted, shifts themselves, understanding them, differentiating, turning this information around in my brain, trying to see if this is a community I would fit into.

Accurate information online is already difficult to procure because of how misunderstood we, as a community, are.

From my 2 years in the community, I have come across boatloads of information about my own identity and other's experiences with it that I think I can finally share it.

From a psychological standpoint, therianthropy can have a few different explanations, which are all easy for me to understand and explain.
There is already a post about a study going in-depth on the psychological aspect of otherkinity as a whole (https://forums.therian-guide.com/Thread-New-Therian-Study-Results) and from the results, I think it gives a pretty good overview of our shared experiences as a community.
Psychological therianthropy can probably be best explained by your brain simply being wired to that of an animal's--the way you think, your mindset, emotions, goals, and everything else would be shifted to that of your theriotype.

Then, of course, there is the second viewpoint, which is copinglink; The brain tries to use therianthropy as a way to cope with trauma. Simple as that.

I think these are both definitions that we can all agree on as far as those terms go.

Shifting to the spiritual side, you have past-life therians, and..many others. Because of how versatile spirituality as a whole is, it can be difficult to even give a few 'definitions' to spiritual therianthropy because everyone's beliefs differ.
There are a few theories that stick out in particular to me that I have come across in my time in the community, the first being the 'soul shape' theory.
Essentially, souls have shapes, and some people's soul takes the shape of an animal, hence the name. I quite like this one as I feel like it goes a little more in-depth than just "I feel a deep spiritual connection" and really connects to the widely used definition of therianthropy.
The second would probably be soul misplacement. Though quite common, I think it also gives a decent explanation of spiritual therianthropy that's simple and to the point.
I understand that there are therians out there who's therianthropy is deeply spiritual, and have more knowledgeable viewpoints than mine, and I'd be happy to learn from anyone who's willing to share theirs.

Then it gets to how I process my identity.

The way everyone processes, understands and identifies with their identity is different, even when it comes to more specific, niche parts of the community.

I feel, personally, a mixture of both psychological and spiritual identities. I am both a misplaced soul and a human who just happens to have an animal brain. Maybe they are linked, maybe they are not, but that is the simplest definition I can give.

To be entirely honest, I don't think any singular understanding or theory for why we are the way we are is correct or any one single theory is wrong. This is just how I view it.


What drives us to the identity?


Since the 60's, people have been identifying as nonhuman creatures in their own measures -- first was the elfkin, then the 'were's, 'otherkin', and then the modern 'therian'. These terms have all brought us community in our experiences and our identities for quite some time now, but why? What drove us to identify ourselves as impartially human? What really made us think like that?

For some, they might answer 'shifting', for others (and myself included) they may answer that they've 'felt like an animal since childhood' or maybe the 'identity just felt right'.

I do sometimes wonder if my otherkinity is not just a simple impartial humanity but rather a desire to stray away from societal standards of humanity. I wonder if, because I feel so strongly divided from what people would consider 'normal' it almost felt correct to identify as inhuman.

To be fair, I'm quite proud of my 'out there' identity. I'm happy to be who I am, and it doesn't really bother me if other people care. With that sort of a mindset it's easy to see why someone like myself might want to look into the identity.

A good theory I have is that these people may find that their identity comes out of confidence in themself and their capabilities.
Someone who was insecure and scared of straying too far out may never really figure themself out.
They're too busy conforming.

That could be a good explanation as to why the rates of therians with autism are so high--they typically don't want to play by social rules, leading to feelings of inhumanity and alienated for their condition.

For a lot of us, we didn't really go out seeking if other people felt inhuman like we did. Whether it was really prominent in your life, or just something in the back of your head, we always tend to stumble across identities like these and realize how much we relate to them.

For me, awakening was a bit difficult. I thought that if I was therian, it could just push me away from society even more. At the time, I was struggling with severe anxiety and selective mutism, and grappling desperately to get out of that situation.
I wanted to make friends so badly, and I'd always been told by my parents that if I was too weird i'd "alienate" myself, and then I'd never have friends.
After giving it some thought, I decided to research more to really see if I fit the identity.
If I didn't, I wouldn't 'awaken', and if I did, I would.
Trying to suppress years upon years of experiences that would be an easy excuse to identify as something as 'niche' as therianthropy.
Obviously, it turned out that I did relate to what I saw, because now here I am, writing a literal essay on those years and years of experience.

I suppose the main point of this section is really understanding the mindset behind our identity. Why do people identify as therian? What makes them decide that their identity is in fact inhuman?

Lastly, the "truth of being a therian"


I think a good chunk of people who talk about therianthropy talk about the negative sides of therianthropy. Because why wouldn't they? Due to recent trends on social media, many have made our identity to be nothing more than running around on all fours and being a "silly animal person". Which, no hate to those creators by any means, but that's what our community has been reduced to from an outside perspective. Without putting any dedication into learning (which is what most people do nowadays, even I'm guilty of this) the misinformation cloaks the "sad truth" behind our actual experiences.

If you're looking into the identity at all, or just want to have another perspective I highly recommend you read this portion of the post.

Even though we take pride in our identity, it doesn't mean we're just little teenagers who run around on all fours wearing tails. It's a genuine struggle for some of us.

I don't speak for the whole community here, but I do think we should be talking a little more about the fact it can genuinely be terrible. The constant dysphoria, masking, trying to act like something you're not.

A majority of the 'problems' with our experiences are not things we can control. Even though I try to get people to understand from my perspective, and explain how I am simply inhuman in the wrong body, there are still things I face that cannot be solved through just gear and explaining and social acceptance.

I never will be who I truly am, as who I am is physically inachievable. I literally cannot be a dragon.
No matter how much I claw and tear and roar there is nothing that can change that. That's why I'm a therian. I simply am not in the right body.

Thanks everyone for listening to...my entirely disorganized essay about things I only halfway understand/hj

Wow. That's mega good. It's really insightful and provides a great lesson. Thank you for writing something like this because it helped me to get more oriented. You have my admiration and my hat is off to you.

wow. i don't even have anything to say after that honestly, except that wow that's good. it's given me a lot to think about. thank you.

(2024-04-24 5:44)Blood Bloom Wrote:  Wow. That's mega good. It's really insightful and provides a great lesson. Thank you for writing something like this because it helped me to get more oriented. You have my admiration and my hat is off to you.

Firstly, Thank you for reading, secondly, thank you for the kind words!

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I didn't really expect too many people to read it in it's entirety so I want to thank you all for doing so (and the kind words), I'm glad I could provide some insight.

Rather, I thank you for writing this article. I think it is very useful not only for me and puppies like me, but also for others.