VERY agreed!! but one part of this fight that we think is important to mention- we should not look to psychiatric institutions for recognition or validation.
weâre a plural system with otherkin parts and weâre currently completing our second postgrad degree in psychologyâŠ. and let us tell you that sometimes, its a blessing to not be studied too much by psych and neurologists.
we understand the feeling that scientific studies lead to widespread recognition, and that that might result in some sort of official validation- but usually its the opposite.
the field of psychology (in an attempt to be taken seriously) has unfortunately swung HARD into recent decades into the Medical Model. this basically means it focuses on finding âcuresâ for things deemed âabnormalâ- usually by trying to link everything to some measurable, physical traits (genes, chemical makeup etc).
it labels everything too deviant from the ânormâ as a âdisorderâ (that needs to be âcuredâ)âŠwhich often further stigmatizes or harms ppl. AND tbh weâre slowly realizing that most of the way the brain experiences existence IS scientifically unmeasurableâŠbut the medicalized reaction to that is still often âif we cant quantify it, its invalid or not worth understanding. if we cant figure out WHY you feel plural/otherkin/etc, you must just be detached from reality.â
there are many people in psych (including myself!) who would genuinely love to study otherkin or plural existence just to understand these groups better, and to show how common they are. buuuut thanks to the culture of research and funding, modern psychology rarely investigates a state of existence, unless its medicalizing it.
i hope they never find a genetic marker for my autism, so nobody can try to target it for a âcureâ. i hope they never make a medication for the âsymptomsâ of being plural, so i never lose the vibrancy of my headmates. i hope they dont list being âotherkinâ in the dms-vi, so that ignorant people canât point to that and make claims about it being officially a mental illness.
BUT existence is valid with or WITHOUT any official studies on it- just like all of human (and otherkin) existence has been for thousands of years.
validation wont come from medicalized psychiatric institutions. studies would theoretically be a helpful starting point for the general public to take things seriously- but that can be achieved in other ways. the true change comes when we change the cultural conversation so that otherkin are considered less uncommon and more âânormalââ- and we dont need scientists for that. once we can do that, then therapists and doctors who take a client-centered approach will adjust to us. but the change needs to come from the bottom-up, not the top-down.
so keep being yourself. keep normalizing our existence and proving that this is more common than people think. keep having this conversation. the rest of the world will catch up with us eventually đ
