I agree with the molding aspect because of how I have a version of DID and my werewolf side exists outside of it as well. Whenever I get angry nowadays, I growl at someone and scare the bejeebers out of them and I get a depersonalization effect where my consciousness takes a back seat and my werewolf side comes forth if stuff gets serious.

I just wonder if there's a way to make that go away? I doubt it though, but yeah I also suffered from abuse as a child.

I was under the impression that this principle of 'connection' was something widely recognized among therians! Oh dear!

When I first began trying to understand and describe my therianthropy I began to treat this principle of connection as something deeply fundamental to it all at a very early stage. I was using the word connection to describe my inhuman experiences as far back as the late nineties!

DustWolf Wrote:for different reasons we as people develop traits that make us like certain animals and then that connection we have to those animals -- that is our therianthropy.

This is essentially what I was trying to describe and explain! At first all I could come up with was that I felt this incredible connection with Wolves and that connection itself is what made this animal a part of who I am...

wait...what did I just say?.....

Here's where the overlap between 'experiential' therianthropy and 'identity' therianthropy comes into play. I became absolutely convinced that when one feels a connection deeply enough with a certain creature, you literally become united as one with that creature, even if only temporarily and even if it's only in your head.

That covers the experiential side of things but at what point does one decide that 'I Am X creature' and why does this happen? How does Identity and self perception factor into this weird equation we live with?

I grappled with this question for years. The best thing I have to offer as an explanation for this is an analogy based on the musical principle of Resonance. If you have two tuning forks that are matched in frequency, you only have to strike one to make the other one ring.

DustWolf Wrote:Ultimately if anyone looked deep enough into their Therianthropy they might find that the reason for their animal traits is... that they're a person who is like that animal.

That is how this therian connection thing works, in my mind. We are born or are shaped into having the ability to 'resonate' aka 'connect' with a certain creature. Oh but, what about the identity part of it?

When you have notes playing with compatible frequencies, the result is a chord. When this happens, you can no longer pick out individual notes. You experience the waveform as a single sound instead.

That is a good analogy for the identity side of therianthropy. We connect, identify and resonate with said creature so strongly, we no longer experience that as a separate entity. It is now a part of ourselves.

Thanks for posting this line of thought, Dust! I hope it continues to generate replies for a while, as it could be a good one to link up with the TG Academy somewhere!

Blayz

I've never been one who was onboard with the purely identity model. I've known other dissociative therians, I've known therians who were just deeply connected to a particular critter, some who believed they were dual-souled, some who believed it was all nature, all nurture, imprinting, etc.

Every one of those who had therian experiences seemed reasonable to me, and to break them down into various subcategories feels like it creates unneeded boundaries instead of unity.

I am personally In agreement with the "molding" theory to some degree as I believe that's what happened with me. I remember when I started feeling like a wolf. I don't know whether it appeared out of thin air one day around this time, or it had been there all along and I had just started noticing it. However I was around 8 to 9-ish years old - the same age in which I began to realize that what was going on between my parents wasn't normal, or healthy for that matter. Perhaps it's a defense mechanism of some sort?

As I said before, I believe in this theory to a degree. I certainly think that there has to be something else to it because if everyone who's experienced things outside their control ended up developing an animal defense mechanism of sorts than there'd be a lot more therians out there.

Hey all,

I've been thinking and this might be considered a somewhat controversial perspective, but...

What if Therianthropy is more of a connection than a condition?

Like, we like to think that therianthropy is something we are born with, but the more I've tried to understand my own therianthropy, the more I realised the reason I can relate to wolves, is because of a number of things I've been through in my life, that made me end up this way.

I wasn't simply born as a wolf therian, I was moulded, admittedly by forces outside my control (abuse, etc), but who I am and why I am more like a wolf than a human was something I've become through both nature and nurture.

Ultimately if anyone looked deep enough into their Therianthropy they might find that the reason for their animal traits is... that they're a person who is like that animal. You can find some of those traits (in therians) also in family members who are clearly not therians or in human cultural norms, etc.

What I'm saying is that for different reasons we as people develop traits that make us like certain animals and then that connection we have to those animals -- that is our therianthropy.


I'm not entirely sure about this. Even writing this I find I can't easily explain away my childhood therian experiences. Is it that I was in fact born a wolf therian? Or is it just the way I interpret those experiences now that I identify with wolves?

How did I become a wolf? There is nothing biological that could explain it and I don't believe in magic or souls. It does make sense that I inherited and adopted different traits that made me connect with wolves better than humans.

This has certain implications. If therianthropy is our connection with the animals, rather than some in-born trait, that means historically people who connected with animals were in a way, also therians -- and we may learn something from studying their experiences.

It also means something for polytherians, cladotherians and people who have trouble pinning down their theriotype -- our traits can be anything, it makes sense that we can find that connection with multiple animals or perhaps none. It makes considerably less sense that those therians were born as several different animals or one so illusive they cannot find it.

What about people who change theriotype at some point in their lives? Is there a force of nature that can change your species? Or is it simply that we find that connection with a different animal?

LP,
Dusty

(2020-05-01 14:47)FoxSky Wrote:  @hey.aleksei Thank you! I did a lot of research years ago to find it and I've been happy with it since. I knew I wanted something Cherokee since I believe my theriotype lives in the southeast US like me and because of my heritage with that tribe, and that I wanted something flower-related due to my past try with the name Violet and because I'm often nicknamed Rosie by different people. It's kinda a tie of my identity, in a way. It acknowledges my past and human self while being dedicated wholly to my animal side and the future of my place in the community

oooh, that's very nice! i might try something similar if i ever decide to have a different name in the community or for my theriotype
i always liked names with very strong meanings, but that also had a cool sound together. it's what mostly made me change names over and over again when choosing for myself, tho i do tend to stick to a certain kind of name always [ at first i wanted arabic due to my lebanese heritage, but scrapped that, then i just got stuck in a loop of russian names :,/ ]

@hey.aleksei Thank you! I did a lot of research years ago to find it and I've been happy with it since. I knew I wanted something Cherokee since I believe my theriotype lives in the southeast US like me and because of my heritage with that tribe, and that I wanted something flower-related due to my past try with the name Violet and because I'm often nicknamed Rosie by different people. It's kinda a tie of my identity, in a way. It acknowledges my past and human self while being dedicated wholly to my animal side and the future of my place in the community

(2020-05-01 14:41)FoxSky Wrote:  I feel like naming your theriotype or finding your therian name are pretty much the same thing. I once named my fox kintype Violet, then I got educated and lost that bit lol. I go by the name Edana in the community, which means something close to "eternal blossom" in Cherokee, the tribe my mother's mother is from

okay but, legit? that's a really dope name..

I feel like naming your theriotype or finding your therian name are pretty much the same thing. I once named my fox kintype Violet, then I got educated and lost that bit lol. I go by the name Edana in the community, which means something close to "eternal blossom" in Cherokee, the tribe my mother's mother is from

i think it's hard for the theriotypes themselves to have names if they weren't domesticated or from specific species that have a sort of naming system to differ and greet each other, like hyenas or dolphins
if you do decide to give a name to your theriotype that's different from yours, i really don't care, not opposed to that idea. if it helps you feel good, be organized if you have a lot therio/kintypes, or if it really just helps you, who am i to stop you? go ahead, name your theriotype whatever you want, as long as you still are aware to you're that animal, identify as it or that that's a huge part of you and your identity
i thought about giving my theriotype a name, in all honesty, but i think that this is something i should take slowly and really consider before doing so. naming yourself or any part of you is a very important and personal process. being trans, i know how much you have to sit on a name idea, think about it, test it, really consider it before saying "that's me". hell, i've gone by 9 or 10 ten different names and i've realized i'm trans two years ago. it's not an easy or quick process, and definitely not the first thing you should be doing in your journey