User:Vashti/Otherkin/Medical perspectives
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Contents |
[edit] Medical perspectives
These unusual beliefs have led to frequent suggestions from both within and without the otherkin community that its members are mentally ill. However, while it is true that some otherkin experience mental illness, many otherkin contrastingly carry on stable, functional and productive lives. Because their doing so is contrary to the nature of insanity, this raises the question of whether any psychiatric diagnosis of otherkin based wholly or primarily on their belief would necessarily be either valid or appropriate, considering that clinical mental disorders are often characterized by various maladaptive behaviors.
It should be noted that those otherkin who have already been diagnosed with mental illnesses or disorders rarely consider this to be relevant to their otherkin status; indeed, many otherkin consider that their beliefs help to mitigate such problems, rather than being a problem in themselves.
The most common disorders quoted are schizotypal personality disorder and clinical lycanthropy.
[edit] Schizotypal personality disorder
The connection with schizotypy has generally been drawn on the following grounds:
- The peculiar beliefs held by otherkin are well outside of the norms for Western culture. (DSM-IV: "odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behaviour and is inconsistent with subcultural norms").
- Many otherkin experience the feeling of phantom wings, tail or other nonhuman body parts. (DSM-IV: "unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions").
There are other interesting commonalities in particular cases - for instance, the Elenari, a subset of elf-type otherkin, are often described as having a peculiar mode of speech, which might be interpreted as a match for the "odd thinking and speech" symptom.
However, the DSM-IV goes on to list six or seven other symptoms, including social anxiety, social and emotional withdrawal and paranoia, and states that a minimum of five or more symptoms are required for a diagnosis of this disorder. It is worth bearing in mind that even people who are robustly mentally healthy are liable to have some personal quirks that occur in the symptom list of one or more personality disorders.
It is also debatable whether the beliefs of otherkin are indeed "inconsistent with [their] subcultural norms" — Scottsdale Community College states that "To be considered signs of a mental disorder, these atypical behaviors or mental events cannot be either ... individual variations that are expressions of a particular subculture (for example, coloring one's hair green and purple because one's friends are doing it). In neither case are the atypical behaviors or mental events a sign of an internal dysfunction: they are consistent with the norms (standards) of some social group to which the individual belongs." As part of the definition of delusion, Drake University states that "The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture (e.g., it is not an article of religious faith)."
[edit] Clinical lycanthropy
Clinical lycanthropy is defined as the delusion that one has physically become or is becoming a non-human animal; most otherkin, however, recognize that their body is human but conceive that part of them, either in a mental or spiritual sense, is non-human. Beliefs about "shifting" - transforming either mentally or physically into another form - are reasonably common, although those few people who claim to "p-shift" or "physically shift" tend to describe such things as eye colour changes. A few otherkin perceive their body as human, but think that this perception is a "seeming" - an illusion generated to protect their identity.
