What is a Therian?

The majority of sources will tell you that therian vaguely means “A person who identifies as a non-human animal on an integral, personal level”.

Maybe it's the word “identify” that I don't like- in recent social discourse it's developed connotations, it infers identification of yourself with intent of controlling perception. It's an action reliant on the perception of others.

In my mind, being a therian is a very internal experience, it's presence bears no direct importance on most interactions I have day to day. I do not tell anyone in my personal life about this side of me.

Therianthropy is this collection of traits and instincts I observe in myself, and their most sensible grouping is under a collection titled 'Dog'. It's one of the core pieces that add up the sum to create the greater whole of Me. And without it I am something else entirely.

I suppose that's a bit dramatic and abstract, it doesn't give a clear cut definition of what a therian is- but;

To me, what it means to be therian is to hold the self image of an animal. To struggle with your instincts, balancing the animal mindset with the human brain, and the feeling that being man is just a bit alien. To take peace when engaging with your natural instincts and environment.

Some therians believe that this animalistic side of them is the result of something spiritual, commonly citing reincarnation or souls. And while I respect that mindset, I subscribe to the belief that instead my personal therianthropy is a result of psychological nature. That due to some combination of nature and nurture- my mind functions in ways more similarly to a canine rather than a human— and in this struggle to balance, has become a core part of myself.

Therianthropy is a fully internal experience. I believe there will always be discourse surrounding whose definitions are deemed 'more correct'— but I also think that due to it's abstract nature, the more people share about their experiences the better a whole image can come together. This is why I wanted to share what I think it means to be a therian -and why in the future I plan to write about more of it's aspects.