Alterhuman means to identify as something other than a human. This could mean being otherkin or therian (more on those later); a spiritual or religious reason; being neurodivergent in a way that could affect your sense of person, like Autism Spectrum Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder (if the system views their experiencing as “not being human” or has non-human alters); as a way to cope; or simply not identifying as a human, for whatever reason (or no reason)! Note: this is a personal way to identify, so not every autistic person identifies as not being human and not everyone copes by identifying as alterhuman, those are just examples.
There's a million reasons why someone would be alterhuman!
If you spend time on Tik Tok, or modern Tumblr, you might know “kinning” as: “to relate to a fictional character.” That definition is not… completely correct.
“Kin” refers to Otherkin, and it’s smaller labels like Fictionkin, or Therianthropy.
It originated as a spiritual identity to mean having a past life as (insert whatever) and maybe having memories to accompany that past life. However, “kin” doesn’t have to be a spiritual identity, though it 100% is for a lot of people. I know people are going to be very upset I said that, but… It can be a psychological identity, such has having delusions or, again, having ASD or being plural. It can also be done as a way to cope with trauma or even for fun— yes, you heard me right! People who “kin for fun” are allowed to use the term kin, though it is a very big discourse topic in the Kin Community. I, however, do not care. If you kin for fun, just make sure you understand what it originated as and that you are respecting your kin community members who do kin for serious reasons.
It’s important to note that (most) people who kin acknowledge that they are in fact not actually (insert whatever). The exception would be people who experience delusions or system members who are nonhuman.
Otherkin has a few meanings. It can be an umbrella term, similar to alterhuman, or it can be it’s own identity to describe people who identify as non-real or fictional creatures, like dragons or fairies. Underneath this umbrella term fits Therianthropy, or “therians”, which describes people who identify as real creatures that have or still do exist on earth, like wolves or dinosaurs. Most “kinning” is done involuntarily. If done voluntarily, it has other terms.
There are a lot of kin terms!
Fictionkin: identifying as a fictional character (oh, hey, that’s almost the tik tok definition!) or species, for example, pokemon or an anime character
Objectkin: identifying as an object, for example, a chair or a drink. This is usually viewed as trolling, but people do use this term seriously, like myself!
Plantkin: identifying as a plant, for example, a specific type of tree. This is also usually viewed as trolling, but, again, people do use this term seriously.
Polykin: Someone with multiple kintypes.
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Terms below are not necessarily “kin”. These are terms that relate more to the popular tik tok definition of “relating to a fictional character”.
Otherhearted: describes people who feel very connected to something. Identifying with something, instead of as something.
Copinglink: voluntarily choosing to identify as something to cope. For example, identifying as a confident character to help with confidence.
Otherlink: voluntarily choosing to identify as something for fun. For example, identifying as Mario because you want to.
Synpath: something you feel a deep connection to or identifying with something, due to that deep connection. For example, having a synpath with an animal that brings you comfort.
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Delusional Attachment: This is not a medically recognised term and got popular on Tik Tok. A “DA” is a term used by psychotic people who have delusions surrounding being a fictional character. For example, genuinely thinking you are Wheatley from Portal 2.
DAs are not usually referred to as kin, but psychotic people do use it as such, like myself (though I dislike the term “DA”).
I find that almost every person who talks about this term is either ableist or uninformed. I personally do not like the term, however, to claim that "DAs" as a concept do not exist is... ignorant.
One: you can 100% have delusions that affect your identity and how you view yourself. For example, Cotard's syndrom is a delusional belief where the person believes they are dead, do not exist, and etc. There's also delusions of grandeur, where the person believes they are famous or immortal or extremely talented; intermetamorphosis, a delusion where the person believes that they can take the form of another person or that people/places have switched; you can have delusions that you are the reincarnation of a god or something else. So, yes, it is very possible for someone to have delusions about being a fictional character.
Two: the claim that if you know what a delusion is, it's "not a delusion" is completely wrong and stupid! "Double bookkeeping is a term introduced by Eugen Bleuler to describe a fundamental feature of schizophrenia where psychotic reality can exist side by side with shared reality even when these realities seem mutually exclusive." Many schizophrenic people, like myself, know we are experiencing delusions. Knowing you are experiencing delusions doesn't get rid of how the delusion affects you.
I hate that people on Tik Tok (and everywhere else) think they are all of automatically psychologists! I hate that they think they have the right to speak on things they don't know shit about. I hate that neurotypicals see people who they view as "cringey" or "weird" and decide they have the right to speak their opinion publically.
Rant over, but I wanted to elaborate on that term way more. I originally wasn't going to include it, because I don't like the term as a schizophrenic, but I think it's important to include.
Xenogender: a gender identity “that cannot be contained by human understandings of gender; more concerned with crafting other methods of gender categorization and hierarchy such as those relating to animals, plants, or other creatures/things.” For example, stargender, a gender that is or related to stars, or pryogender, a gender that feels like fire. I will elaborate more on what xenogenders are in my “label hoard” section, whenever I code it!
This is, again, not “kinning”, but being kin with something could affect how you view your gender. For example, being a dog therian might make you view your gender in a “dog way” as opposed to a “human way”. Or identifying as alterhuman might make you view gender completely differently, because a lot of societal gender terms are inherently “human”— if you are not human, you may not identify as “boy”, because that is a human term.
Obviously, not all people who use xenogenders kin and not all people who kin use xenogenders.
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Phantom limbs: this refers to feeling body parts you kintype has. For example, being a bird therian or dragonkin, you may have “wing phantom limbs”, or feeling wings.
(Kin)Shifting: this refers to mentally shifting into the mental state of your kintype. For example, being a wolf therian, shifting could make you act more “like a wolf”, or being a fictionkin, shifting could make you act more like that character.
Kin memories: memories of your life as your kintype. This often refers to the spiritual aspect of kin. For example, being a wolf therian, and having memories of your past life as a wolf.
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There are a million other kin terms and kin-related terms and identities, but I will obviously not list every single one, because there's literally a million. But that's an introductory to alterhumanity and kin!
It could be! While a lot of religions have the concept of past lives and reincarnation, it can also be some sort of psychotic disorder. I've also seen many systems say they thought they were a therian, because they had "kinshifts", when really it was a nonhuman alter fronting.
However: if every single person who kins does, in fact, have a mental illness, does that negate the experience?
Does that make it "invalid", because they're now mentally ill? Does that make what they're experiencing "not real", because it's just mental illness? Does that give people the right to harrass those who kin?
Sure, lets say it's a mental illness, but what does that do, exactly? Do you think that calling it a mental illness means every single person who kins will get up and go "oh! shit! yea of course, I'll just stop now!" Is that how you think mental illnesses work? Do you think everyone can afford a therapist to "fix" and "cure" them? Do you want to call it a mental illness just so they stop? So they get "cured" and act "right" in society? So they stop being freaks?
"I'm just worried for them!" Are you? Or do you just want them to be normal? What exactly are you worried about?
The kid in your math class who wears a cat tail and ears and meows isn't hurting anyone. The person on Tik Tok who wears a furry mask and jumps around their backyard as if they're a fox isn't hurting anyone. The Tumblr user who calls themself a wolf and gets upset when people sit on their phantom tail isn't hurting anyone. People with mental illnesses or neurodivergencies can find comfort in the Kin Community and can provide coping skills for their symptoms and traits.
Why does it matter if it's a mental illness or not?
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