Cynanthropy - A Dog's Life

Some kind of anthropomorphic super-dog thing. It seemed appropriate.
(photo from Pixabay)

CYNANTHROPY

Noun. Rare. Late 16th century.

[French cynanthropie (after lycanthropie lycanthropy) from Greek kun-, kuon dog.]

A form of madness in which a person believes himself or herself to be a dog and behaves accordingly.

Here's a word you're probably (hopefully) never going to need - cynanthropy, pronounced sy-nan-throp-ee, the belief that you are a dog. And, yes, it's real, being one manifestation of various psychological conditions such as belief in therianthropy (the ability to shapeshift between human and animal form), clinical lycanthropy (the belief that you have such an ability or are currently undergoing such a transformation), and species dysmorphia (the belief that you are a different species trapped in a human body).

Take Boomer, for example, whose human name is Gary Matthews. At 47, he likes nothing more than roaming the neighbourhood, barking at cars, and napping in his kennel. And yes, he eats dog food. He says he experienced the transformation on a hot day in 1979 when he went down into his basement and stretched out on the floor to cool down. Ever since then, he has been living the dog's life. As to whether he actually believes he's a dog, he stated on the Dr Phil show that "he has to believe" that somehow he is at least part-dog. You can decide yourself at what point an extreme fascination turns into full-blown cynanthropy.

Note: For more doggy weirdness, see the canophilist post by clicking here

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