Researching your therianthropy

Hello,

Ultimately decided to put this in a new thread, because of it's educational value -- we don't have enough discussion on this subject and well, might as well start somewhere.


Please try to understand that what I'm about to say is not an attack, but rather an attempt at an explanation.

(2017-05-20 22:21)Firebird Wrote:  For example, you find a friend here and see his/her profile, and it sounds just like you! Only, their theriotype isn't even close to yours, so you think about whether or not you are what you said you are... Another example, someone sees your theriotype on your profile, lets say its a dog, and says "hey that sounds NOTHING like a dog, your not a dog at all!" and you come to rethink your whole life saying "could they be right? Am I really not a dog? Then what am I?!" In these cases, and many others, you can feel, unstable with your beliefs, and instead of being true to yourself and saying "I know who I am!". You begin to wander.

We don't talk about researching theriotypes nearly enough, but the thing that's wrong with your line of reasoning here, is that it's not introspection.

The process of discovering one's theriotype is a personal one. You research how you feel and compare it to descriptions of behaviors of animals. You can and should look for different resources describing the behavior of animals and use your capacity for critical thinking to determine what to accept and what to ignore.

Try not to rely on limited information or solely on the experiences of your therian friends, because this will distort your view -- therians are often not scientists and their understanding of animals can be wrong, especially if they working off of limited information themselves. You have to also research elsewhere, to get a more complete picture.

Spoiler (Click to View)

One therian relying on limited information about a theriotype of another therian, and so forth in a chain, is what's created the "Tumblrkin problem" to being with, where over time what a theriotype or therianthropy itself is, deteriorated so much, that it no longer has any resemblance to what it actually means.

Nobody else can tell you your theriotype, it's your personal experience. You may be wrong about the animal in question, but only you know how you feel, as such the final step is always yours.

Talking about it and discussing it with others will help you understand what you may have missed or where you have incomplete information and should read up. Here on TG, you have access to a lot of people who also experience therianthropy and there is a lot of potential that someone has already walked down the road you are walking now. You can ask them for advice and they will help you.

Ultimately there is little point to identifying as a therian, if you don't understand your theriotype and don't know what things about you are animal-like. The entire point of this site is to help you put your animal traits into context and help you find a way to integrate them into your human life.


If you simply compare your experiences with the experiences of the other therians here, the traits that will be most relatable will be the result of you being a human teenager, because that is what the majority of the people here are.

I am not against teenagers or whichever age-group or discussions about life problems, I've said many times that we are a family and this is something families do. But that being said, those things are not therian traits, they are human traits and it's okay, because we're all also human. If you want to research therianthropy however, the other approach I mentioned might be more helpful.

LP,
Dusty