Animal Alters

One of the last mysteries of our system is the animal alters that have always stayed inside..they seem to be changelings so can and do sometimes change their animal form but they never present as human, have never tried to front and no-one has ever had access to their thoughts..

I decided to google animal alters and the DID research site came up and seems to suggest they may have been the very earliest splits from Bobby & LS it says:

"When a child is still young enough to first develop alters, they do not yet have a firm grasp of what is or is not possible, so they — and, by extension, the alters that are forming from their mind — might not understand that the entirety of themself is and always will be human. Once some alters have been formed as non-humans, this sets a precedent that allows splits later in life to take the same or similar forms because the brain understands how such a thing can be possible according to internal logic"

Could our animal changelings be Bobby and Susie's trauma holder parts and thats why no-one has any memory at all before a specific age?

Also the last part about non-human splits being possible later in life too is that how/why we have some that taken spirit form for older teens/adults rather than animals?

Jay

I think that statement applies to all non-human alters. One of our earliest alters, Keira, is a dragon. When we were very young, our mother introduced us to all sorts of fantasy and science fiction. It isn't surprising then that she is a dragon. In fact, it isn't surprising at all that most of us are non-human as that was what we attached to early on. When we were around other people, we were always Othered anyway, and this lead to an attachment to non-humans in Star Trek (such as a love of Vulcans or Joined Trill); elves, demons, dragons, etc. It probably isn't surprising that our main maladaptive protector, Marcus, is one of the very few humans in the system.

It is quite possible that those are the earliest trauma holders for your system. Keira was our primary early protector. After all, dragons are strong and capable of fighting back.

Vi

Yes we have a Spock inside! Kit likes to work with them designing the holodeck programs.

Phoenix used to play many parts for the littles...favourites have been Aslan (Narnia) and Falcor (from the Never Ending Story). I'm sure Phoenix was originally their protector rather than Persecutor to the whole system, we can't understand their complete change in behaviour!

We wonder if the stroke damaged them (maybe they were in or very near the part it happened when it was happening?) ..or its a mix between that and the hormone fluctuations?.. so they're suddenly struggling much more to control their emotions/thoughts?

I'm told the other changelings want Phoenix to be given chance to be reborn as a small baby animal like a rabbit or such and taken to the same place as the others where other insiders look after them all...so that maybe what happens with Phoenix at least for a while until our menopause stage ends...Kit believes how they behave as an animal should show if there's lasting damage (as a disabled animal would despite its natural instincts eg a kitten or puppy born blind) and also be easier to contain on the inside if their behavior is still affected. They will be looked after either way and given as much freedom as is safe for them and everyone else.

I guess the others that have been there as animals for years will always stay that way? Maybe it's like a safety feature to protect the littles' from memories they couldn't handle as animals can't talk to tell them or torment them with bad memories?

Jay

About non-human alters there is also this french article that I hope Google Translate will not mess up too much. If some sentences are badly translated do not hesitate to ask me to re-translate myself.

https://troublesdissociatifs-wordpress- ... r_pto=wapp

ArbreMonde wrote:About non-human alters there is also this french article that I hope Google Translate will not mess up too much. If some sentences are badly translated do not hesitate to ask me to re-translate myself.

https://troublesdissociatifs-wordpress- ... r_pto=wapp

Thanks...the English is good though I don't know what "Amalthæ, in Alter-humanities" is and the little white textbox that comes up to explain is still in French?

on the paragraph where it starts..

"For its part, Amalthæ, in Alter-humanities , suggested several other phenomena that could facilitate identification with something non-human"

4th paragraph after subtitle "The formation of a non-human identity"

Jay

Amalthæ is the writer of the book "Alter-humanités" which is a 500 pages brick of a book (with 700 references) about people with a weird sense of identity (otherkin, therian, DID people with introjects...) Apparently it is out of print at the moment but since the author self-published other of their books I guess this one will also be re-published at some point.

The pronoun should read "they" rather than "it".

Anything else I can help you with?

ArbreMonde wrote:Amalthæ is the writer of the book "Alter-humanités" which is a 500 pages brick of a book (with 700 references) about people with a weird sense of identity (otherkin, therian, DID people with introjects...) Apparently it is out of print at the moment but since the author self-published other of their books I guess this one will also be re-published at some point.

The pronoun should read "they" rather than "it".

Anything else I can help you with?

Oh it's someone's name? ..I thought it was a term or definition of something relating to non-human alters. Maybe it should have said "For their part' Amalthæ, in Alter-humanities , suggested several other phenomena that could facilitate identification with something non-human" ..I would have probably realised it was referring to a person who said that!

Anyway google's english (translation) is much better than my french!

I wonder if the book is available in pdf online? (and English...are they a French author?).

I don't think we ever considered our animal changelings would be able to express themselves via typing to join an 'otherkin' forums for support or anything like that!

Ours have never spoken or communicated in any way with any of us..(let alone typed!) They're there...we can see them..they have a special protected area other changelings look after them...some as parent animals (in whatever form they chose to be) and some as humans who act as managers for the area.

I don't think the 'littles' understand why they are there or who they are (ie trauma parts protecting them from trauma memories) they just think we have animals in the inner world cos they like cute baby animals.

Kit has a question for you..

[KIT] In your opinion @Arbremonde (as you have way more experience in this field than us) do you think that if our littles grew up or reached the point they understood that these were trauma parts and told them they didn't need to protect them anymore ..would they become human alters?


Jay (& Kit)

TheTriForce wrote:I wonder if the book is available in pdf online? (and English...are they a French author?).

They are a french author but I'll try to find their contact info online and see if a translation in english is possible.

TheTriForce wrote:I don't think we ever considered our animal changelings would be able to express themselves via typing to join an 'otherkin' forums for support or anything like that!

Dunno if it's a good idea or not. Otherkin forums tend to be focused a lot about identity expression and spiritual beliefs, little about dissociation and trauma therapy. So it depends on what you want to talk about and what you need to talk about I guess.

TheTriForce wrote:[KIT] In your opinion @Arbremonde (as you have way more experience in this field than us) do you think that if our littles grew up or reached the point they understood that these were trauma parts and told them they didn't need to protect them anymore ..would they become human alters?

It really depends on what it means for them to have an animal shape. Some of my parts are animal-like and they stayed that way after healing their traumas - though our common "final form" is globally human, kinda a shapeshifter between all our different forms. I guess it is a case-by-case situation. Your inner form is what it needs to be. If it needs to stay animal, it stays animal. If it needs to shapeshift between a human and an animal form, it will do that.

After all, the problems are the trauma and the maladapted behaviors - not the animal shape.

Another thing to look for might be non-standard forms of communication. I mean...Anathema and Keira both talk 'Inner' more than they do English and both can struggle with communicating with the outside world.

For a long time, Keira would 'communicate' through emotions and color signifiers. We still hold onto some of that as a system.

I hope that helps a bit,
Vi

@Arbremonde: .. I think Kit needs to do more research on these 'Otherkins' then first because ours have never talked or fronted so I don't know enough to know whether we're talking about the same thing or not. For this reason we have no idea what their animal shape means to them, whether they would want to keep it or even if they would ever want to reveal exactly what trauma's they hold.

@ViTheta: what do you mean by 'color signifiers'? I don't think they have a language as such but possibly have a way of communicating basic needs with each other and their carers. Human Alters aren't allowed in their protected area as far as I know.

Jay