Instinct Triggerer Theory

First of all, this is only a guess, not a definitive fact and is only supported by what I believe. It isn't meant to hurt anyone or insult anyone, only to share my thoughts and theories. All of these ideas are original and have not copied anyone else's ideas, if I have, by coincidence, please let me know.
My main point is that Therianthropy has to do with mental abnormality and/or the primordial animal instinct. I will split this into two different parts, the 'Evolution Theory' and the 'Trauma Theory' which I will bind together at the end to explain the 'Instinct Triggerer Theory'
So first off, I would like to define what the Evolution Theory is. Its explanation to Therianthropy that is that humans and animals originated from the same source and are closely connected on the DNA level, meaning that some of the human population, also known as Therians today can be mentally affected by this biological connection. So far I haven't found any definitive pieces of evidences that support this but it is something that we can connect to some level to the Uncanny Valley. The Uncanny Valley is an effect that causes humans to fear anything that resembles a human but is not fully human. Anything further from that point and anything closer to humans from that point doesn't cause fear. It is collective, meaning that a vast majority experiences this feeling without having had any connection between each other. It is simply something stored biologically in every single human being's consciousness. Although even the Uncanny Valley is only a hypothesized idea, the resemblance in the genetical or collective imprint can be related. It's interesting to think that deep inside the subconsciousness, humans correlate to animals. Due to the long-term evolution that humans undergo, gradually this instinct has been hidden and dissolved, but sometimes it may be triggered.
This connects to my second idea, the Trauma Theory. Most Therians I have met in reality and talked to online have some kind of suffering, whether they experience it now or have experienced it in the past. I think that this mental suffering and experience has lead to certain degrees of trauma which call for the primordial animal instinct to protect the consciousness. This is when the instinct emerges and separates from the subconsciousness, blending into the consciousness of individuals. So why does this trauma call upon this distant instinct? I believe it is because in the ancient times, the animal instinct was to fight, hunt and protect, making the impression that this instinct can provide power for the individual. Then, it is only natural that the animal side starts appearing. Shifts, then, following this idea, would be the process of the formerly subconscious identity trying to protect the human identity. It is relatable to the concept of Schizophrenia, the separation of identity due to excessive trauma. The separate identities created by Schizophrenia help the main identity carry mental burden and experience the pain for the main identity instead. I believe that this animal instinct does similar things, protecting the human identity by taking on the suffering. Both can be seen as a defensive mechanism of the human mind, triggered when harm is experienced. It can also be related to the generally well-accepted knowledge that first experiences of Therianthropy are during the times of puberty, and in most people's experiences, middle school and high school, times of puberty, are the most traumatic because of bullying and academic pressure etc. It is even statistically supported that puberty can be very upsetting and hurtful.
In conclusion, the Instinct Triggerer Theory is a combination, or rather umbrella for the two theories. It is the idea that a collective, biological and subconscious animal imprint within the human mind can be triggered when trauma is experienced in order to protect the individual's human identity. This awakened primordial instinct then connects with the human consciousness to form Therianthropy.
In all, this is the small article I have been able to sum up based on my thoughts. Feel free to comment, share and add to this if you think there are variations or extensions to this theory. Thank you very much and have a great day!

Hi Lycanthera. What an interesting post you have here, makes me rub my paws together to dissect it a little!

First of all, I noticed your mention of schizophrenia and supposed separation of identity, and wanted to correct some information there. Schizophrenia is often mistaken for dissociative disorders, but in general they are not the same thing. I believe you are referring to Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and Other Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSDD, which is more of an umbrella for those who show symptoms but don't directly fit the diagnosis of the known dissociative disorders), which are disorders where one's identity (partially) scatters into several. For DID, symptoms like dissociation (episodes of disconnect from the self) and amnesiac barriers (when the different identities/headmates do not share the same memory) are a key factor of this. From what I have gathered over the years, this disorder is indeed a survival mechanism from early childhood. As a child, your sense of self is inherently more scattered over several types of emotions, which are supposed to merge into one sense of self as your brain develops. But ongoing trauma may make your brain prevent this merge from happening to preserve the ability to function, causing a more defined split in identity.

Knowing this, from your theory it sounds like that'd have to mean that from early childhood, all humans should already have some kind of animalistic side embedded in their brain. You mentioned this as a shared evolutionary animalsitic mindset that all animals share, but that the humans have come to suppress overtime. While it's true that many animalistic instincts of humans have toned down over the years, I think it's important to add nuance to this: evolutionary instincts do not appear out of nowhere, they are a result of longterm conditioning of a species to be able to survive. Therefore, all instincts can be traced back to a cause. The Uncanny Valley theory is not a random instinct, but instead can psychologically be traced back to a combination of the human's detailed perception of the human face (to be able to recognize emotions, and therefore to help with social survival), and the detection of danger when a person's face feels off (which also stems from xenophobia).

The fact that humans experience this only further proves that a set of instincts per species are more species-specific than you'd think, because no other animals have the ability to read and communicate with faces this well.
As per your theory, it'd leave me to question why some therians would experience prey-like instincts (flight and freeze responses to being attacked for example), while others experience predator instincts. Why some therians have the urge to swim, while others will want to fly. That's no one collective animal mindset, that is a whole respective framework for each individual.

I am a huge fan of dissecting natural human instincts from animalistic therian experiences. I solemnly believe there are overlaps and similarities, but also undeniable distinctions between the two. To pin therianthropic experiences purely on our shared human (or overall animal) instincts personally feels a bit like tarring it all with the same brush, as if all animal instincts come from the same source.

So please feel free to add your thoughts on this. Maybe you do have explanations to the nuance I've given, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

Overall I think it's not an impossible theory, just one that deserves more attention in the detail