Mrthfx

I know that this question may sound silly, that it may look like the asker is just trying to acquire attention, that it may seem as if by one's asking this question one is partaking in something absolutely ridiculous, but I ask this question in the most honest, earnest, and loving way possible.

I ask it because today I came across something called 'species dysphoria'. The only 'dysphoria' with which I can say I am quite familiar is gender dysphoria because I am a cisgender ally of the transgender community and one who believes that one can really be a transgender person --- rather than being a person who believes oneself to be transgender but is in reality just a mentally disordered person.

Some human beings seem to be most sincere when they say that they identify not as human beings. How can a human identify as a non-human? How could a human be a non-human? Of course, some would say that a human individual is defined by the properties that one possesses - the capacity for articulate speech, the ability to reason and the like - but that is very essentialist and one could use that argument against transgender people by saying that a man is a person who has an XY chromosomal pattern, a penis, and the like.

I, for example, believe not that when a transgender person says that they are X in the body of Y that they mean it literally. I see not how one could be X in Y's body. But I do see how that could be a metaphorical way for one to describe to cisgender people how one feels about what one believes to be one's sex and gender mismatch.

So can one who is a human be a non-human in a human being's body. If so, how?

Genetically if you modify the genome sufficiently to remove the homo sapien markers found in all homo sapiens then you have successfully created a non human being.

Phenotypically it may have almost identical features.

This begs the question as to whether a human being is merely the sum total of his biological machine/body or whether or not dualism allows for the mind to remain human despite the genetics of the physical body being altered.

Technically in a dualist sense the mind is agendered but once it takes on a body, the physiology causes the input to the dualist mind to be framed by the male or female biology.

Therefore if you have a non-human body the mind the results will behave in a non human way. Hence it’s possible to look human (for the most part) but no longer be considered human.

You can also create a hybrid whereby the human markers remain and another specie is added to the genome. Therefore both are expressed though one will be dominant and the other recessive.

Species, gender, and sex dysphoria interestingly enough may arise in similar ways. Some people experience both gender and sex dysphoria along with species dysphoria and consider them to be related in that they believe them to be similar dysphoric experiences. Although Many factors need to be accounted for when addressing neurobiology. Gender, sex, and species dysphoria may arise from similar brain regions relating to sensory perception and may come about even for different reasons. Sex and species dysphoria are usually provoked by the person having uncontrollable phantomizations of their body that matches that of the sex or species they desire to be. How this develops is still a mystery but there are theories out there for how transsexualism and transgenderism might develop. However, research on species dysphoria is lacking.

Among the homosexual cisgender controls, weaker sex dimorphism was found in white matter connections and a partly reversed sex dimorphism in Cth. Similar patterns were detected in transgender persons compared with heterosexual cisgender controls, but the significant clusters disappeared when adding homosexual controls, and correcting for sexual orientation. Instead, both TrW and TrM displayed singular features, showing greater Cth as well as weaker structural and functional connections in the anterior cingulate-precuneus and right occipito-parietal cortex, regions known to process own body perception in the context of self. (Possible Neurobiological Underpinnings of Homosexuality and Gender Dysphoria)

What a person identifies as is independent of the dysphoria itself. Identifying as a different species doesn't make sense physiologically even if the person believes that they actually are of a different species. Most people, however, who experience species dysphoria don't identify as the opposite species but instead, just assert they have a desire to become the species that which they desire. The same can be said for sex and gender dysphoria the difference is that sex and gender transition (FtM and MtF) are actually technically possible so it makes sense for someone who experiences these to types of dysphoria to actually identify biologically as the sex or gender they wish if they've transitioned. (I should point out that it's a common misconception that you can't change your sex. In biology, sex is characterized by the type gametes you produce and if something like HRT, medication, or GRS, or other factors impede gamete production than genetics is no longer a determinate and you have to fall back on secondary sex characteristics most of which end up changing when a person transitions anyways and they would be classified as male or female according to that). There are different ways a person can define a man, woman, boy, girl, depending on what characteristics they choose to define the terms by whether stereotypical or biological.

If someone experiences dysphoria there are other ways a person can identify with something other than physiologically in that you feel that you are similar to someone or something and can understand them or their situation such as psychologically, behaviorally, ideologically, ethically, culturally, spiritually, and possibly other ways. The phantomizations that a person might have with species, sex, or gender dyphoria would fall under the psychological category there may also be behavioral similarities as well.