Why i think people are psychological therians

I think there can be plenty of reasons one will identify as a therian (psychologically,) and that we don't need to find one single cause, because everyone's experience is different.
That said, I think that a common reason (and what I attribute my therianthropy to,) is something that starts as a connection to a certain species for whatever reason. This could be due to how you grew up with this species, how you see it portrayed in media, or it is something that you just happened to like a lot, and became connected to it in that way (or a mix of these.) Then, because of how much you connected to it, your brain adopts the traits of it.
I think this is a reason for there being so many feline and canine therians, because those are the most popular kinds of animals in our society (generally.)
This is definitely how my therianthropy occurred. I was in love with dogs as a kid, to the point that I might as well have been one, (well, I guess I kinda was!) and my brain adopted those instincts and traits. Then, later I was exposed to wolves in the media/on the internet, and that further influenced me, building off of my dog self, to be a Wolfdog.
I don't mean this to say that we are just pretending to be another species, our theriotypes are very real parts of us, because I think that is just how our brains have come to naturally think.

Do you think this is possibly a cause for your therianthropy? If not, I'd love to hear what other people think caused their therianthropy, and also any other feedback on this theory!
(Again, I don't think this is the sole cause for therianthropes, just possibly a common one!)

Truth be told, I wish I knew how I ended up a wolf therian, but this is definitely why I'm cat hearted.

Cats were my only friend up until I was 12 and I still have a few of their traits as a result.

I feel that media did play a role in my psychological therianthropy. Sometime after I saw Jurassic Park in 1991, I made some connection in my head that somehow I had a raptor spirit inside me. This was based on the behaviors exhibited by them in the movie. I would have been 7~ years old at the time and it just made total sense to me. Not really much for introspection at that age.

It would transition to wolf later on in life, but that was due to an internet forum that focused on wolves. The Balto movie may have had some influence on it, but the key change really occurred on that forum. It was there I made the connection that the behavior of raptors portrayed in popular media were very wolf like. Doing that kind of 'popped the cork' on some dam in my head and the resulting flood of how right it felt saw me transition from thinking I had a raptor spirit to a wolf spirit.

These days it feels purely psychological for me. Pursuing spiritual sources for my therianthropy have never panned out.

I think mine is a mixture of both psychological and spiritual. Psychological because it's always been there in some form or another, manifesting itself later in life. Spiritual because I like to believe I was a wolf in a past life that merged with my human soul, making me a werewolf from the merge.

That and the media helped me to realize, too, like American Werewolf in London for instance.

(2021-01-28 5:37)WolfdogPaws Wrote:  That said, I think that a common reason (and what I attribute my therianthropy to,) is something that starts as a connection to a certain species for whatever reason. This could be due to how you grew up with this species, how you see it portrayed in media, or it is something that you just happened to like a lot, and became connected to it in that way (or a mix of these.) Then, because of how much you connected to it, your brain adopts the traits of it.

I've had traits that you could attribute to therianthropy long before I first experienced any kind of connection to wolves or ever considered them something like me. My family kept cats and I didn't mix with dogs because of their loud barking -- I had the instinctive reaction to curl up in a ball and hide. Yet, I was acting like a wolf pup would.

Obviously your explanation does not apply to me.

(2021-01-28 5:37)WolfdogPaws Wrote:  I think this is a reason for there being so many feline and canine therians, because those are the most popular kinds of animals in our society (generally.)
This is definitely how my therianthropy occurred. I was in love with dogs as a kid, to the point that I might as well have been one, (well, I guess I kinda was!) and my brain adopted those instincts and traits. Then, later I was exposed to wolves in the media/on the internet, and that further influenced me, building off of my dog self, to be a Wolfdog.

Personally I think it is a sign of bias if you think your theriotype is your favorite animal. I think the experience you describe -- of having a connection with your favorite animal is not therianthropy.

I'm not saying it's impossible to have a theriotype which is also your favorite animal, but I think we should all be self-critical enough to have doubts if this is the case, and try to look for other explanations. I think as an explanation for our experiences, therianthropy should be one of the last options, rather than the first.

LP,
Dusty

(2021-01-28 20:40)DustWolf Wrote:  

(2021-01-28 5:37)WolfdogPaws Wrote:  That said, I think that a common reason (and what I attribute my therianthropy to,) is something that starts as a connection to a certain species for whatever reason. This could be due to how you grew up with this species, how you see it portrayed in media, or it is something that you just happened to like a lot, and became connected to it in that way (or a mix of these.) Then, because of how much you connected to it, your brain adopts the traits of it.

I've had traits that you could attribute to therianthropy long before I first experienced any kind of connection to wolves or ever considered them something like me. My family kept cats and I didn't mix with dogs because of their loud barking -- I had the instinctive reaction to curl up in a ball and hide. Yet, I was acting like a wolf pup would.

Obviously your explanation does not apply to me.

(2021-01-28 5:37)WolfdogPaws Wrote:  I think this is a reason for there being so many feline and canine therians, because those are the most popular kinds of animals in our society (generally.)
This is definitely how my therianthropy occurred. I was in love with dogs as a kid, to the point that I might as well have been one, (well, I guess I kinda was!) and my brain adopted those instincts and traits. Then, later I was exposed to wolves in the media/on the internet, and that further influenced me, building off of my dog self, to be a Wolfdog.

Personally I think it is a sign of bias if you think your theriotype is your favorite animal. I think the experience you describe -- of having a connection with your favorite animal is not therianthropy.

I'm not saying it's impossible to have a theriotype which is also your favorite animal, but I think we should all be self-critical enough to have doubts if this is the case, and try to look for other explanations. I think as an explanation for our experiences, therianthropy should be one of the last options, rather than the first.

LP,
Dusty

I am a therian, I'm saying that i was imprinted upon by wolves and dogs because of how much i liked them and felt connected to them, and this connection turned into my brain adopting their instincts and behaviours. I've been pretty much the same way i am now since a young age where i acted like a dog and thought i was a dog.
I think like a canine and internally feel like i am one, experiencing shifts, discomfort at having a human body and not one of a canine, and phantom limbs of a canine since in my mind they should be there. All i'm saying is that for me all of this started because i loved dogs and wolves so much that their behaviours and instincts imprinted into how my brain works.

This is true for me as a canine cladotherain. Canines were everywhere in my life in so many ways, was even to a good degree raised by and with the family dogs.

For me it definitely didn't start with a love for any animal. I was like that since always, The furthest I can remember backt to was 1st grade. I didn't have any pets backt then. The only animals I had somewhat contact for most of my young live were following: My Grandma had a herd of black wild cats living on her property. But I was definitely not influenced by those flee bags. I wasn't even allowed to touch them XP And one day they all disapurred.
Secondly 6 big friezes. They live wright outside my fence.
And lastly a lot of Insects. I probably saw more Insects than people back in the day, when I used to go to the forest and big meadows to catch them all!
I definitely would consider Bugs my favorite animal back then. They are still pretty high up there. I didn't really have contact with cats until I was about 12? (unless you count the feral heard of cake eating cats at my grandma's)
So It couldn't have been influenced by my favorite animal.

(2021-01-28 5:37)WolfdogPaws Wrote:  I think there can be plenty of reasons one will identify as a therian (psychologically,) and that we don't need to find one single cause, because everyone's experience is different.
That said, I think that a common reason (and what I attribute my therianthropy to,) is something that starts as a connection to a certain species for whatever reason. This could be due to how you grew up with this species, how you see it portrayed in media, or it is something that you just happened to like a lot, and became connected to it in that way (or a mix of these.) Then, because of how much you connected to it, your brain adopts the traits of it.
I think this is a reason for there being so many feline and canine therians, because those are the most popular kinds of animals in our society (generally.)
This is definitely how my therianthropy occurred. I was in love with dogs as a kid, to the point that I might as well have been one, (well, I guess I kinda was!) and my brain adopted those instincts and traits. Then, later I was exposed to wolves in the media/on the internet, and that further influenced me, building off of my dog self, to be a Wolfdog.
I don't mean this to say that we are just pretending to be another species, our theriotypes are very real parts of us, because I think that is just how our brains have come to naturally think.

Do you think this is possibly a cause for your therianthropy? If not, I'd love to hear what other people think caused their therianthropy, and also any other feedback on this theory!
(Again, I don't think this is the sole cause for therianthropes, just possibly a common one!)

This is definitely an important part of my story about therianthropy. I did have an affinity for domestic cats even back when I was a kid. They intrigued me, moreso than other pets did. It also helped that we didn't actually never had a cat. That all definitely pulled me more towards the feline side. Why I ended up as snow leopard rather than domestic cat in the end, though, I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure there's a psychological reason for that as well.

If that (early childhood exposure to media containing animals) was the case, I'd be either a feline, a canid or a bear, not a dragon. The cartoons that featured draconic creatures I could have watched were Dungeons and Dragons, Digimon and Pokemon, and the only one I watched was Jake Long American Dragon but, even then, it wasn't among my favorites and I felt no sense of connection.

I can mention media works that I watched extensively during my childhood and that could have (if such hypothesis was true) made my theriotype be of another species: The Prince and the Pauper (mouses), The Lion King (felines), The Fox and The Hound (canids), The Beauty and the Beast (felines), Little Bear's Adventures (bears), The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures (mouses), Silver Hawks (felines [yes, I thought they were half-cat people because English is not my primary language]), Thunder Cats (felines), Tom and Jerry (mouses and felines [sometimes there's a canid]), Care Bears (bears), Woody Woodpecker (birds) and X-Men episodes that features Nightcrawler (some non-therian kintype could come out of this, maybe?). Score table: felines - 6; mouses - 3; bears - 2; canids - 1; birds - 1; other - 1. Therefore, my theriotype should have been... a feline?

When I started exploring myself back in 2015, I thought that my theriotype was a maned wolf (a canid). After no more than 3 months, I couldn't ignore that I felt leathery wings on my back regularly and that it's a feature that maned wolves don't have, so my initial guess was wrong, and that winged wolves wasn't the answer for it. Then, I needed some months after that to sort out all details, considering the details I previously ignored. The lesson I got from this personal experience was the motto: “Feel first, rationalize later”.

I think, in a very optimistic view, that it's a mere coincidence that your theriotype is popular on TV shows.