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Haraway does indeed talk about this, or something like it - in the Cyborg manifesto she talks about dislocating consciousness from the boduily processes we normally associate with its sustenance. There's some stuff in "Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk" which is also potentially of interest.
However, what you describe seems to be closer (particularly the Robin Hobb reference), to otherkinning. The Otherkin is a loose description of a number of different belief groups centred around the idea that the indivisuals invovled are either spitritually or in advanced cases physically not human.
The Otherkin are those people who believe themselves to be spiritually and/or physically other than human. While mythological species (elves, satyrs, fairies, dragons, and so on) are widely accepted as being included under the term "Otherkin", many people in the community prefer to include aliens, vampires, furries, extraterrestrial humans, and other nonhuman races. A mythological or literary equivalent is not necessary to be included under "Otherkin"; there are types of otherkin that have not shown up in known legends or fiction (star-dragons, Elenari, etc.).
Now, the main problem with the Otherkin paradigm is its lack of imagination - people always belong to the sexy races (dragons, "star-dragons", elen-frickin'-ari), and play out their dialogue with otherness in a very boring way, usually involving a name with a surprising number of vowels. The principle, however, is to apply the same sort of dysmorphic reactions that are often cited in transgender cases to the idea of humanity itself.
Possibly the most interesting Otherkin idea is genetic transpeciesism, where people believe themselves to be vampires (sensitive to light, superhumanly strong, susceptible to migraines), or angels (don't even ask), but again it is a rather *obvious* way of going about feeling dislocated from one's humanity. Especially as they then have a "seeming", where necessary, that protects them by making them...appear human. You know, like Michael Landon.
It is also worth noting that the numbers of Otherkin swelled massively when White Wolf (IIRC) released the game Changeling, which is predicated on a very similar premise.
Otherkinning may be a precise and correct way to express the fact that an individual is, in fact, an elf (you can tell the elves by the apostrophes about halfway through their names). Alternatively, it could be an inspired and totally organic development in the treatment of schizophrenia - akin to the therapeutic idea of teaching the patient to dialogue with their voices and assess rationally what advice is good or bad rather than trying to drown them out pharmaceutically.
Ganesh? |
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