Clinical Lycanthropy
Yudh Vir Saund
1114341
Try Imagining waking up in the middle of the night and you
can’t help but notice something just feels off. You can feel your body change,
yet you just can’t pin point what it really is, like your transforming into
something, something not quite human…
This is everyday life of individuals suffering from Clinical
Lycanthropy. Lycanthropy according to myth is the supernatural condition where
an individual shape shifts into a wolf. In the western world, these beasts were
commonly known as “werewolves”. Cultures all over the world have recorded such
man beasts and gave them different names. In Central America for instance,
these beasts were called “werejaguars”, the umbrella term used for
metamorphosis and its variants is “Therianthropy”
In Ancient Europe and in parts of Central America among the
Native Americans, the state of an individual with the condition was shunned off
as being possessed by the spirit of a beast. In Abyssinia the individual
possessed is usually of the female gender said to be taking the form of a
caused by the hyena, under a kind of trance that ushers the woman into a fit;
the fingers being clenched, the eyes glazed and nostrils flaring; the woman
then laughs hideously and dashes on all four limbs.
It is a high possibility that what people considered Lycanthropy
to be could have simply been people relating experiences of what now is
classified under psychosis. In reality however, the interaction between human
experience and historic culture is virtually impossible to separate, and Lycanthropy
is exception. While on one side of the coin psychiatry assumes that if an
individual who in all sobriety believes him/herself to be beast is mentally ill
and individuals deliberately trying to achieve the same with psychoactive
“potions” and rituals are considered to be shamans in many societies across the
world.
Clinical Lycanthropy is what the ancient myth has come to be
known as today, debunking many myths and lore of the ancestral bed time
stories. The name although being specific, Clinical Lycanthropy is in its
reality an umbrella term for the condition where humans have claimed to have
gone through a metamorphosis from man to any animal. There are mainly three
criteria for one to be diagnosed with this condition: Having felt like a beast
at any given moment in time, showcasing behaviour similar to that of a beast
(howling, shouting, crying, and whining) and the patients strongly kept belief
of him/her being a beast.
Bunch of “Crazies” right? Well… That’s not the word you are
looking for. The term that must be used is “delusional”. Clinical Lycanthropy
is a form of psychosis, but strangely has not been associated with one specific
mental condition. Certainly, it has been associated with disorders of
delusional like Bipolarity, schizophrenia, and in few cases clinical
depression. However, none of which necessarily have to be present as a
compulsion for an individual to suffer from Clinical Lycanthropy.
If not the illnesses mentioned above, one can’t help but
wonder what causes the condition? And the next question would be how is it
possible that someone who isn't diagnosed with psychosis end up believing that
he/she is a wolf (or a dragon or a unicorn or a cat)? One cannot explain the
situation with much clarity, but as of now it’s theorized that the illness must
have something to do with the part of the human brain responsible for body
imaging. This is the section of the brain that records the images of our body
and how one part relates to the other. That’s how an individual knows, what his
left hand is doing when his eyes are shut. It is also responsible for the
ability to carry out complex physical tasks without consciously thinking about
where one’s limbs are. Clinical Lycanthropy is relatively different from
“Capgras” delusion, which is theorized to be caused by the malfunction in the
facial recognition sections of the human brain.
So now, try imagining that your body imaging system has gone
out the window and your perception tells you that your limbs are that of
another species. You would not only say “Hey guys… look at me, I’m a bee” – one
suffering from Clinical Lycanthropy would believe that he/she is a bee – but
also you’d feel like you have obtained antennae, a stinger in place of a bottom
and Full-fledged wings. Similarly, you wouldn't simply believe that you are a
wolf – your mind and your perception would make you believe that you fangs,
whiskers, a tail and that you should walk on all four.
Further, there have been stranger cases on Clinical Lycanthropy
in psychiatric records. Among the rare cases, individuals also believed that
other individuals around them have undergone a similar metamorphosis to
animals. This has been termed as ‘Lycanthropic inter-metamorphosis’ (Moselhy, 1999) and ‘Lycanthropy
spectrum’ (Nejad, 2007) .
A study published in a 2009 issue of the journal Addiction and Health by Dr.
Mansoureh Nasirian reported that the signs of Lycanthropy in individuals he
studied that appearing after the use of the psychoactive drug ecstasy. The
report claimed that the man believed that his relatives has transformed into
various farm animals. (Nasirian, 2009) . However, it was claimed by the team of
researchers that the drug ecstasy has been known to induce paranoia, psychosis
and in some cases even schizophrenia. In their Lycanthropy case, the man’s
underlying responsiveness to schizophrenia could have been a result of ecstasy.
Individuals suffering from Clinical Lycanthropy are in luck
because although this is a relatively rare disorder, it is treatable with the
help of psychiatric drugs and a good amount of therapy. It is kind of out there
when you think about the possibility of there being people in the world who in
all seriousness believe they are werewolves.
Yudh Vir Saund
1114341
Try Imagining waking up in the middle of the night and you
can’t help but notice something just feels off. You can feel your body change,
yet you just can’t pin point what it really is, like your transforming into
something, something not quite human…
This is everyday life of individuals suffering from Clinical
Lycanthropy. Lycanthropy according to myth is the supernatural condition where
an individual shape shifts into a wolf. In the western world, these beasts were
commonly known as “werewolves”. Cultures all over the world have recorded such
man beasts and gave them different names. In Central America for instance,
these beasts were called “werejaguars”, the umbrella term used for
metamorphosis and its variants is “Therianthropy”
In Ancient Europe and in parts of Central America among the
Native Americans, the state of an individual with the condition was shunned off
as being possessed by the spirit of a beast. In Abyssinia the individual
possessed is usually of the female gender said to be taking the form of a
caused by the hyena, under a kind of trance that ushers the woman into a fit;
the fingers being clenched, the eyes glazed and nostrils flaring; the woman
then laughs hideously and dashes on all four limbs.
It is a high possibility that what people considered Lycanthropy
to be could have simply been people relating experiences of what now is
classified under psychosis. In reality however, the interaction between human
experience and historic culture is virtually impossible to separate, and Lycanthropy
is exception. While on one side of the coin psychiatry assumes that if an
individual who in all sobriety believes him/herself to be beast is mentally ill
and individuals deliberately trying to achieve the same with psychoactive
“potions” and rituals are considered to be shamans in many societies across the
world.
Clinical Lycanthropy is what the ancient myth has come to be
known as today, debunking many myths and lore of the ancestral bed time
stories. The name although being specific, Clinical Lycanthropy is in its
reality an umbrella term for the condition where humans have claimed to have
gone through a metamorphosis from man to any animal. There are mainly three
criteria for one to be diagnosed with this condition: Having felt like a beast
at any given moment in time, showcasing behaviour similar to that of a beast
(howling, shouting, crying, and whining) and the patients strongly kept belief
of him/her being a beast.
Bunch of “Crazies” right? Well… That’s not the word you are
looking for. The term that must be used is “delusional”. Clinical Lycanthropy
is a form of psychosis, but strangely has not been associated with one specific
mental condition. Certainly, it has been associated with disorders of
delusional like Bipolarity, schizophrenia, and in few cases clinical
depression. However, none of which necessarily have to be present as a
compulsion for an individual to suffer from Clinical Lycanthropy.
If not the illnesses mentioned above, one can’t help but
wonder what causes the condition? And the next question would be how is it
possible that someone who isn't diagnosed with psychosis end up believing that
he/she is a wolf (or a dragon or a unicorn or a cat)? One cannot explain the
situation with much clarity, but as of now it’s theorized that the illness must
have something to do with the part of the human brain responsible for body
imaging. This is the section of the brain that records the images of our body
and how one part relates to the other. That’s how an individual knows, what his
left hand is doing when his eyes are shut. It is also responsible for the
ability to carry out complex physical tasks without consciously thinking about
where one’s limbs are. Clinical Lycanthropy is relatively different from
“Capgras” delusion, which is theorized to be caused by the malfunction in the
facial recognition sections of the human brain.
So now, try imagining that your body imaging system has gone
out the window and your perception tells you that your limbs are that of
another species. You would not only say “Hey guys… look at me, I’m a bee” – one
suffering from Clinical Lycanthropy would believe that he/she is a bee – but
also you’d feel like you have obtained antennae, a stinger in place of a bottom
and Full-fledged wings. Similarly, you wouldn't simply believe that you are a
wolf – your mind and your perception would make you believe that you fangs,
whiskers, a tail and that you should walk on all four.
Further, there have been stranger cases on Clinical Lycanthropy
in psychiatric records. Among the rare cases, individuals also believed that
other individuals around them have undergone a similar metamorphosis to
animals. This has been termed as ‘Lycanthropic inter-metamorphosis’ (Moselhy, 1999) and ‘Lycanthropy
spectrum’ (Nejad, 2007) .
A study published in a 2009 issue of the journal Addiction and Health by Dr.
Mansoureh Nasirian reported that the signs of Lycanthropy in individuals he
studied that appearing after the use of the psychoactive drug ecstasy. The
report claimed that the man believed that his relatives has transformed into
various farm animals. (Nasirian, 2009) . However, it was claimed by the team of
researchers that the drug ecstasy has been known to induce paranoia, psychosis
and in some cases even schizophrenia. In their Lycanthropy case, the man’s
underlying responsiveness to schizophrenia could have been a result of ecstasy.
Individuals suffering from Clinical Lycanthropy are in luck
because although this is a relatively rare disorder, it is treatable with the
help of psychiatric drugs and a good amount of therapy. It is kind of out there
when you think about the possibility of there being people in the world who in
all seriousness believe they are werewolves.
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