The difference is semantics!
While there’s no official definition of otherhearted/otherkith, the commonly accepted one is “a strong identification with a specific species.” The official description of synpath is “a tidy name for something you identify with on several levels, which could be a concept that resonates really strongly with you, an animal or mythological creature you feel you act like, or a person or character you share a lot of common behaviors with, among other things.”
The person who coined synpath (@stirdrawsandreblaws) adressed this issue in this FAQ: “Isn’t having a synpath the same as being animal/other-hearted?
Sort of. I created synpath before I was made aware animal-hearted and other-hearted were terms. As synpath refers to something you resonate with and animal/other-hearted is a personal identity, there is no conflict between them and one or both may be used at the same time if desired.”
When it comes to words, however, I usually take the common usage over Word of God, and ‘synpath’ is used to describe a personal identity as well as a concept that simply resonates with you. In other words, though the intended meaning was different than that of ‘otherhearted’, they can be used as synonyms for one-another.
Personally, I use ‘otherhearted’ when referring to species/objects/concepts and ‘synpath’ when referring to specific characters.
Like I said the last time this question was asked, a lot of fucking people care. Like. There are literally thousands of people on forums and in discord groups and on various social media who genuinely care about this and you’re the outlier if you don’t. The next time I get an ignorant message like this I’m gonna block the sender. Shape up or fuck off.
It might be worth taking a break with the research and just giving yourself time to feel if coyote fits. It’s very easy to get hung up on subspecies and populations and colors and all the other cosmetic stuff, and end up stressing over it instead of just taking a moment to breathe and just feel ourselves.
I also know a bunch of people to whom just narrowing down a genus is enough and limiting themselves to species is stressful - that’s a valid way to identify as well. If finding a specific subspecies makes you feel good, by all means do it! Whatever helps you in your nonhuman journey and makes you comfortable is good.
But you also shouldn’t feel pressured into picking a subspecies. Just take the time to breathe, give the hard research a rest for however long you think you need (be it days, weeks, or months), and just take a mental note of how your identity manifests itself in your day-to-day, and whether narrowing it down to a subspecies will be beneficial to you.
Yeah, it’s pretty normal. Sometimes your feelings towards your kintype will change over time, but it’s not at all strange to just feel kinda ‘meh’ about it.
Yeah, copinglinks can be just as important (or moreso) than kintypes! I also feel a bit bad about suggesting the anon looked into otherlinking when that isn’t play-pretend either, but now that the ask has been reblogged a bunch of times I can’t really edit it. But yeah, no alterhuman identity is inherently more or less important, there’s no hierarchy of alterhuman identities, and none of them are just pretend.
I give a shit and I know thousands of other people do as well. If you’re pretending to be a wolf you aren’t otherkin and you don’t belong in this community (check out teen werewolves or otherlinkers). The distinction between otherkin and copinglink matters to the vast majority of people in the community, which is why we made up said terminology in the first place, and you’re the odd one out if you don’t care whether you’re misusing our language or not.
Since it’s unkown how or why people end up being otherkin, there’s a lot of different theories. I don’t feel like it’s my place to explain the trauma theory, though I do believe it’s got some merit, so I’d rather link you to a few posts/articles about it. The tl;dr is that being otherkin is an involuntary, nonphysical nonhuman identity, and that there aren’t really any criteria beyond that:
- Introductory Guide to Psychological Otherkinity
- A discussion on this subject between @a-dragons-journal and @flock-of-changes
- Why Otherkin don’t need “professional help” (Mentions how nonhuman identities are supported as a coping mechanism by several mental health professionals)
I’m genuinely sorry that all this talk about psychological vs. spiritual kintypes has distressed you - I can tag any future posts about it if that helps?
With that said - and I’ll try to put this is gently as possible -, every supernatural experience can be explained by psychology. This does not, however, mean unequivocally that that is the ‘one true explanation’, but it is one of many explanations. All it means is that people can interpret stuff in however way they’re comfortable.
Interpreting my otherkin experiences as anything other than psychological makes me uncomfortable, but if other people can better fit my experiences into their personal world-view via a spiritual narrative, they should be allowed to do so - as long as they don’t try to impose that narrative onto me (and the same goes for me; I shouldn’t try to impose my own narrative on others and if you ever feel like I’m doing that, you’re more than welcome to call me out). It’s a case of live and let live.
This isn’t the first time other users have been mad at me for personally interpreting spiritual experiences in a way that fits into my own world-view. Let me reiterate: People are getting frustrated with me for having a personal philosophy and personal beliefs that don’t fit neatly into their own world-view - basically saying that I should either agree with their beliefs about the metaphysical or not talk about my own beliefs (whether they’re saying that unintentionally or not is another discussion).
Other people having different beliefs, world-views, and interpretations of the metaphysical than you do does not prevent you from having your own beliefs. If Christians and pagans and atheists can coexist and discuss their different world-views without imposing said world-views on each other or feeling threatened by each other’s differences, then damn well so can spiritual and psychological otherkin.
I think you should consider why you find it offensive that other people have different spiritual beliefs than you do or find it offensive when they openly discuss those beliefs. But again, I’ll gladly tag discussions like this so you can block them in the future, when they cause you that much distress.
The general consensus is that if you kintype fades away it never was a kintype to begin with, and I tend to agree with that. We need some definition to distinguish between otherkin, copinglinkers, fictionflickers, and so on, and the most widely agreed upon definition includes that otherkinity is an inherent trait. A psychological kintype is no more fleeting than a spiritual kintype. It’s a kintype because it’s permanent and it’s permanent because it’s a kintype which i realize is circular logic but that’s just how definitions are.
Honestly, whatever works for you! I’ve relied mainly on shifts, I know others who’ve relied mainly on memories.
I’d be a bit wary of looking at behaviors since those are usually strongly influenced by your surroundings and can’t really be separated by humanness, but if you’ve got some behaviors that genuinely make you feel nonhuman, it might help to take those into account as well. Same thing goes for gut feelings - it can be hard to separate, genuine feelings from intrusive thoughts or outward influences.
I probably should’ve worded that unpopular opinion better ^^'
It’s completely fine to believe in something without scientific evidence (I’m asatru, so anything else would be hypocrisy from my side!). What I really mean is that all of those beliefs, whether they’re based on spirituality or psychology or what-have-you, should be a choice. Even if you’re raised in a certain faith and want to continue in that faith, it should still be your own active choice to do so.
The brain is a fickle thing sometimes. It’s easy to subconsciously create your own memories and have them feel real. I have loads of ‘memories’ from my gnoll life, even though I believe it’s a psychological kintype, and all of them are as real to me as my human memories. Believing in a psychological explanation for your nonhuman memories doesn’t make said memories any less valid or real.
These are just my opinions so don’t @ me but:
- ‘kin related body mods are good, especially if they help your dysphoria
- It’s 'kin with an apostrophe, not kin as in family
- I believe that all 'kin experiences can be explained by psychology and that believing it’s spiritual instead is a choice
- I don’t support 'kin pride flags (as in, creating brand new flags for your kintype and calling it a pride flag). Modifying pride flags so they feature your kintype is cool tho
- I still haven’t fully made up my mind about the realness of factkin because it can be explained by psychology. All I know is that they aren’t otherkin
- Your kintype can also be a coping mechanism or can be created from a coping mechanism. As long as your nonhuman identity isn’t voluntary, it can be a kintypeObjectkin and plantkin are real
- No kintype is cringy
- I don’t understand conceptkin, colorkin, songkin, or similar ideas, so I hesitate to call them fake, but I’ve yet to see it explained, so I doubt their validity
Shifting (which is a verb, not a noun!) is when you experience a shift c: A shift is a change in your perception that makes you feel more like your kintype. Here’s the common types of shift: https://therian.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Shifting_types
Fictionflickering is when you go through identifying as various fictoinal characters/species rapidly, without actually having them as your kintypes. There’s a more in depth discussion of it here https://fromfiction.tumblr.com/post/141001439357/
That sounds stressful! As always, journaling is a good place to start. It can help you get an overview of what makes you feel nonhuman and what kind of nonhuman you might be. Things to look out for and write down could include shifts, dreams, memories, noemata, urges, reactions to your surroundings and your kintype’s surroundings, and hiraeth. My friend Cipher did some really neat journaling that you can look to for inspiration ([1], [2], [3])
Don’t be afraid to look into fiction. Accept that there’s a possibility that you might end up identifying as a ‘made up’ creature - that’s basically what happened with my second ‘type, and I’ve never felt more like myself than after I accepted it.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the community for help either. There’s a reason we got together as a community in the first place; to help each other and to discuss things. Asking other people for suggestions on anything can be a massive help.
In my experience, the most important things when you want to narrow down your ‘type is to get a good overview of all your nonhuman experiences and to never dismiss a possible ‘type because it’s strange or ‘cringy’.
With all this said, there’s always the possibilities of cameoshifting, mistaking a heartedtype, or having multiple kin-/theriotypes, so definitely don’t rule those out immediately!
Hope this could help you somewhat, and good luck with your self discovery :)
A therian is a person who identifies as a feral animal. 9 times out of 10 it’ll be a real life animal, like a dog or lion or, in my own case, a bison, but there are also people with mythical kintypes, like gryphons or dragons, who prefer the therian label over the otherkin label.
Therianthropy (not therianism) is the concept of identifying as a nonhuman feral creature.
Hope this helps! :)