WHAT IS 'KIN?

To understand fictionkin, we must first understand otherkin, as that is where "kinning" has its roots. Otherkin is the belief that, on a spiritual or psychological level, one is not human (or not entirely human). This experience is involuntary. In cases of spiritual otherkinity, the individual often believes that they were their kintype in a past life, and that life is obviously still very important to them. They may feel as though their soul itself is not human and is supposed to still be their kintype. People identifying as something other than human has been recorded as far back as the 60's, but the term otherkin itself was coined sometime in the 90's.

Fictionkin is very similar to otherkin, except that the individual's kintypes are of fictional characters or species. It is also involuntary, and can be spiritual or psychological in nature — the main difference is that on top of incorporating reincarnation into the belief, the multiverse theory is also involved. Now, what is the multiverse theory, you ask? It's quite a popular theory that there are infinite universes alongside ours in which the laws of reality are different, or that something in that universe is different than in ours. Most spiritual fictionkin who believe in this theory also believe that since there can be infinite universes, there can be a universe where everything that is fictional here can be real somewhere else, and vice versa. I recommend reading more into the multiverse theory yourself, because it is very interesting and complex. I'll be linking some resources in the source section of this carrd.

• BACK
• NEXT

ISSUES WITH THE ORIGINAL CARRD

(Click the images above for a full view.)
As for image #1, this just is not what fictionkin folks are at all. Sure, some fictionkinners will call themselves "[insert kintype] IRL!", but that doesn't mean all of them do. Why the hell does this even matter at all? "IRL" (which literally just stands for In Real Life) was first being used, in an identity sense, by the 'kin community in the first place. Remember all of those "IRL Kokichi"s or "IRL dog/cat/wolf/fox/etc." folks you'd see on social media a few years ago? All of them are 'kin. That is literally just what it meant. Quit being a fucking loser. Stop medicalizing shit for no reason.Image #2: people having secure identities isn't trying to make things "fun and goofy" bro. Like I promise you it is not that deep. You're invalidating a community that has existed for longer than you've been alive for, and you look stupid doing it.Image #3: If you find yourself negatively impacted by someone saying they were a genshin character in a past life, turn off your device. Problem solved. You don't have to go around saying we are uneducated when you've clearly never been in a veteran kin space even once.
You can't say "they're just IRLs in denial" when fictionkin came first. It'd be the other way around.

• BACK
• NEXT

WHY FICTIONAL IDENTITIES
SHOULDN'T BE MEDICALIZED

This is common knowledge by now, but mental illnesses and disorders are impairing to a person's life. It's in the name — disorder, a disruption of order/way of living. While psychosis isn't its own mental illness, it is an umbrella of symptoms, all of which cause some pretty heavy impairment in an individual's life. Hallucinations, delusions, disorganized speech and thought patterns, social withdrawal, paranoia — these can all be categorized under psychosis, because psychosis is a detachment from reality.Now, what's this have to do with fictionkin, and fictional identities in general? The answer is nothing. Everything that has just been mentioned is inherently harmful to a person's mental health, because they are symptoms of mental illness. But according to a lot of self-proclaimed IRLs and/or people with "delusional attachments", having a fictional identity is somehow a delusion on its own. This is not true. If the identity does not harm the person, it is not related to mental illness. It is not a delusion. Especially not if it's spiritual. If you want to armchair diagnose those with spiritual beliefs, go ahead, but spiritual beliefs cannot be medically considered symptoms of mental illness. If they were, then a whole lot of religious / spiritual people would be considered psychotic.It really isn't that hard to understand. If it's not harmful to you, don't call it psychosis, because psychosis is always harmful, no exceptions. There is no such thing as a "healthy delusion". To suggest that all you need in order to be considered "psychotic" is to be an "IRL" is dangerous and misinformative. This will only cause issues. Let people live without trying to make their experiences an 'abnormality'.

• BACK
• SOURCES

SOURCES USED

• RESTART