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Therianthropy as Neurodivergence

Vyt - 2020-04-14 14:08:16

I personally believe that my therianthropy is neurologically caused. I think this causal explanation could work for other people as well, though of course I would never insist with any certainty on one cause for therianthropy, or that other people should agree with me.

For the record, I am neurodivergent in that I have cerebral palsy, but my specific subtype (spastic hemiplegia) generally does not have mental/cognitive effects, and I do not believe relates to my therianthropy. I suspect I am neurodivergent in some other way. Sveral friends on the autistic spectrum believe me to be. I have discussed it with my therapist, who thought I may be sub-clinical in terms of diagnosis. I have not been assessed more deeply/professionally, but hope to be.

Off the bat, based on polls and surveys there seems to be a higher prevalence of neurodivergence (especially autism and ADHD) in the therian community. It is not a 1-to-1 relationship, of course, there are autistic people who are not therians and therians who are not autistic. And there are many (like myself) in that "not quite" state: who have traits similar to these more recognized labels, but are missing key points, or don't meet criteria.

Consider I describe a hypothetical person who has:

Did I just describe a therian or an autistic person? Of course, the question is not that simple (and neither all therians nor autistic people will disp;ay all of the traits above). But to give an example from my own experiences, the things another person might see as clear signs of neurodivergence (sensitivity to audio/noise, stimming) I can easily see as canine (sensory shifts, chewing and digging behavior). And I for one am fine with it being both.

To be absolutely clear, I am not saying therianthropy is a diagnosis in itself, or a subtype of autism. DSM diagnoses are cause-neutral. They only gather clusters of symptoms without it mattering what the root cause is or how labels might overlap and intersect, And brains are infinitely variable. The variety of how brains might be, and the human clinical and diagnostic labels applied to them, will not be a neat and clean match.

Take for example this post which explores two hypothetical people with seemingly similar behaviors. One is a therian, one is autistic. The behavior may be similar, but the post argues the root cause is different.

But…how sure can one be of that? People aren't always consciously aware of why they are doing something, just that it feels right or natural or helpful to do. When I chew on something, how can I know wether it is as a dog, or as sensory stimulation? (Besides, surely a dog would also enjoy sensory stimulation). And the introspection illusion in cognition and psychology would indicate that people have a much less certain grasp of their own motivations and behaviors than they think they do. The causes people explain for their own feelings, preferences, and actions are not always accurate/true (even with people being honest). So the idea that we can distinguish one person from another by assessing that the root cause is different seems inaccurate and flimsy to me.

In short, I think many of the experiences of therianthropy can be explained by brain activity (e.g. sensory processing differences, potentially body-map variants leading to phantom shifts, etc.). Experiences and behaviors will overlap with various forms of neurodivergence, and the label one chooses for those experiences (e.g. canine chewing vs. sensory stimming) will have more to do with that person's own self-perception and introspection than any clear, delineable, knowable causal difference.

-As a note, I haven't talked about things like past-life memories and spiritual experiences. They are not part of my experience of therianthropy and thus not very compatible with this perspective.

Nim - 2020-05-28 11:10:42

Very well written and interesting post!
I am also a dog therian and also believe my therianthropy to be both psychological and neurological exactly for the reasons you wrote out so perfectly. I am neurodivergent, with an ASD diagnose.
I hope it is okay I do not have anything intelligent to add, just me showing there is another one out there xD