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Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Volume 82 January 1989 37

Lycanthropy: a review

T A Fahy MB BCh BAO Bethlem Royal and Maudsley Hospital, London SE5 8AZ

Keywords: delusion; ; lycanthropy; schizophrenia

Certain abnormal beliefs are common to diverse for the -man, including werewolf, from wer, the cultures, possibly originating in shared fears, Anglo-Saxon for man, the French loup-garou, the experiences or beliefs. Zoomorphism, a Italian lupo-manaro and the Russian volkulaku. In belief in the capacity for human metamorphosis into other cultures a different animal may be the focus of animal form is prevalent in the myths and legends fears oftransformation including the fox in Japan and of many societies. The animal concerned is usually the , hyena and crocodile in China, Malaysia and both common and feared and may also be an India6. important symbolic or religious figure. Since Ancient The delusional belief in metamorphosis to animal Greece the fear of transformation into a wolflike form was termed Insania Zooanthropica in the 18th animal has been recorded in European literature. century7. The diagnosis of lycanthropy referred to a Legendary accounts maintain that a true meta- delusion oftransformation into a wolf-like animal but morphosis occurred. The Greeks worshipped the wolf- it has come to be used with less specificity. According , Lycaeus and there are many stories of to Oribasius ofPergamus, 'The persons affected go out ordinary men being transformed into and at time, wander among the tombs till morning, other creatures. In Graves' translation of Greek in every way imitating a wolf'7. They may also myths1 an account is given of the inhabitants of become preoccupied with religious themes and Parnassus who followed a pack ofhowling wolves to symbols and develop a yearning for raw flesh. The a mountain top where they established a new city, peak incidence of lycanthropy occurred in Europe Lycorea. According to the myth, the Parnassians during the 15th and 16th centuries. At this time the practised Lyacaon's Abomination, a ritual where a boy mentally ill were seen as valid subjects for was sacrificed and his guts made into a soup which interrogation by the forces of the Inquisition. In the was eaten by shepherds, one ofwhom would then turn 13th century unequivocally stated into a tormented werewolf who was condemned to that good and bad angels had the ability to change wander the countryside for 8 years, regaining his the shape of men's bodieS2. During the late Middle humanity if he refrained from eating human flesh. Ages and early Renaissance periods theologians According to this legend a full recovery was possible believed that mental disturbance or physical as illustrated in the legend of Damarchus who went metamorphosis was the result of a Satanic pact or evil on to win a boxing prize at the Olympic Games after spells. These beliefs were adopted with varying rigorous training in the gymnasium. The connection degrees of credulity by medical writers. , with cannabilistic practices is further illustrated in a 16th century French physician wrote on the subject the legend of Lycaon, King of Arcadia, who was of lycanthropy 'the devil can really and materially changed into a wolfas punishment for secretly feeding metamorphose the body of a man into that of an Zeus human flesh. animal and thereby cause the sickness'8. However, a In Ancient Rome the wolf was an important minority, including Leloyer in the 16th century and symbolic figure, the constant companion ofMars and Rhanaeus in the early 18th century7, believed that the protector of Romulus and Remus. The werewolf physical transformation was impossible but the devil was the subject of accounts by Pliny, and was responsible for making the individual believe Virgil2. A medical explanation for the affliction was that he was so afflicted9. Those accused of being favoured by some early writers, including Paulus werewolves were brought before the ecclesiastical Aegineta in the 7th century AD3. In Ireland, courts and if found guilty were dealt with brutally. werewolf stories, remarkably similar to accounts When in human form, the werewolfwas suspected of from other cultures, were not uncommon. Giraldis wearing his skin turned inside out, and some ofthose Cambrensis, in Typographica Hibernia4 tells one of found guilty had chunks ofskin peeled away to search the earliest of these stories: 'An Irish priest met by for a coat of fur'0. Epidemics of lycanthropy, a wolfin Meath and desired to come and see his dying presumably a form of mass hysteria, were not wife. They were natives of Ossary,- whose people had uncommon. Boguet, a French Judge, is reported to been cursed for their wickedness by St Natalis, and have condemned 600 sufferers to death". However, were compelled to take two by two a wolf-shape for the hypothesis was not always accepted6 seven years, returning to their own at the end ofthat and in some of these cases the accused underwent time. The priest was persuaded to give the she-wolf a rigorous course of treatment which included the sacrament, for the other turned her skin down a bloodletting, hot baths, purging with colocynth, aloe, 0141-0768/89/ little showing that it was an old woman'. St Patrick wormwood and acrid vinegar or sedation with opium. 010037-03/$02.00/0 is also said to have cursed Veneticus, King of Gallia fllis2 has proposed that the strange appearance 01989 transforming him into a wolf5. and behaviour of sufferers of severe may The Royal The widespread distribution of the tradition is have led them to be accused as werewolves during the Society of reflected in the number oftongues which have a term . He claims that sufferers of severe Medicine 38 Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Volume 82 January 1989 porphyria may have aroused suspicion because of aggression. Jackson'6 reports the case of a 56-year- their pigmented, ulcerated and hairy skin. The victim old woman who began to behave like a wild dog may also avoid light and in advanced cases following an attempted reconciliation with her neurological or psychiatric sequelae can lead to husband through sexual intercourse. She responded bizarre behaviour. Ancient descriptions of those at to antipsychotics but later developed erotomanic risk of metamorphosis lend some support to this delusions and a Capgras syndrome. A 49-year-old unlikely theory. Oetius said of sufferers 'You may woman had chronically ruminated and dreamt about know those affected by these signs: they are pale, have wolves, culminating in the delusion of wolf-like weak sight and dry eyes, and do not shed tears; their metamorphosis after sexual activity with her husband eyes are hollow; they do not secrete saliva; they are and on another occasion, coinciding with a full always thirsty, and they have inveterate ulcers on the moon17. In two young male cases lycanthropy was a legs'7. It is plausible that such patients may have symptom of schizophrenia6. One also suffered from attracted suspicion in medieval communities but an organic brain syndrome ofundetermined cause and there is little documentary evidence from the time to the other abused hallucinogenic drugs and had a long suggest that a significant number of those charged standing interest in the . as werewolves had such gross abnormalities of In the largest modern collection of cases of appearance. lycanthropyj Keck and colleagues'8 uncovered the The relationship between lycanthropy and records of 12 American patients who had reported that psychiatric illness was noted in the Old Testament. they were a particular animal and had behaved in a In the Book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar is said manner reminiscent ofthat animal. Six patients were to have entered a lycanthropic state after a lengthy manic, 2 were depressed, 2 had schizophrenia, one had depressive episode. However, a medical explanation borderline personality disorder and one received the did not become prevalent until the age of the diagnosis ofatypical psychosis. Two patients, one who Enlightenment. In the 17th century, Robert Burton claimed to be a Bengal Tiger and one who hopped heralded a rational examination oflycanthropy in The around a ward like a rabbit' admitted that their Anatomy of Melancholy'2 where he described the behaviour was under voluntary control after condition as a form of madness. However, 19th and confrontation by their psychiatrists and werejudged 20th century case- reports are exceedingly rare. to have a factitious element to their accompanying Attention was turned instead to an examination by psychiatric disorder. The lycanthropic behaviour was psychotherapists of the relevance of dreams and quite varied and 10 patients identified themselves as suspicions of werewolves, drawing heavily from specific animals, most commonly wolves, dogs or cats. classical and medieval accounts. Eisler4, in an One case who identified himselfas a gerbil had raised anthropological study which was heavily influenced these animals as for many years. One patient by Jungian psychology, claimed that lycanthropy believed himself to be a cat for more than 13 years represented the emergence of an archetypal but in all other cases the behaviour was transient and carnivorous beast which is also expressed in sadistic responded to antipsychotic medication. Symptoms behaviour. Jung believed that the delusion was an associated with lycanthropy can occur in the absence expression of a primitive identity from which man of a full blown syndrome, as in the case reported by struggles to free himself'3. Jones considered the Buchanan'9 of a depressed 60-year-old divorcee who psychological meaning of superstitious belief in barked, grimaced and growled but did not believe that werewolves and their significance in dreams in his she was transformed into an animal. volume On the Nightmare',, concluding that the To gain an understanding of certain bizarre figure represents a desire for freedom from psychiatric symptoms it may be helpful to consider compulsion, a wish for heightened potency and an the effects ofreligion and culture. At the time ofthe oral-sadistic or cannabilistic impulse rooted in Inquisition, when the werewolf was a feared satanic Oedipal conflicts. representation, the incidence oflycanthropy peaked. Most of the recent case reports adopt a rigorous As religious beliefs have changed, the perception of phenomenological approach where the delusion is no the devil as a wolf or goat-like creature has receded longer seen as a distinct diagnostic entity but as a but is not entirely unfamiliar. These beliefs may be non-specific psychotic symptom. Within the limited revived in those suffering from severe depressive number of reports it is possible to identify some illness where they are incorporated into delusions of common themes. The delusion may be compatible with guilt and sinfulness. Similarly, the cannabilistic and the patient's perception of themselves as evil, dis- aggressive qualities ofthe lycanthrope can be traced gusting or guilty. The cases oftwo such patients, who back to the content of ancient myth and followed believed that they were being punished for crimes or through the centuries when the werewolf retained were subject to Satanic influence, are vividly reported these characteristics. Despite the pasage oftime, the in the literature. In 1852 M Morel reported the case of werewolf remains a powerful and evocative image. a man who had numerous somatic complaints, The influence of myth and legend has been filtered delusions ofguilt and later became convinced that he and obscured with the passage oftime but it is likely had assumed the form of a wolf. He did not recover that the symptom of lycanthropy will continue to be and died 'in a state of marasmus and in the most seen as long as tales ofthe wolf-man can fighten us. violent despair"l4. A more recent report concerned a woman also developed the delusion in 66-year-old whoa References the setting ofa psychotic depression which responded 1 Graves R. Greek myths. London: Cassell, 1958 well to a combination of antidepressants and ECT'5. 2 Illis L. On Porphyra and the aetiology of werewolves. In two women the onset of the delusion followed Proc R Soc Med 1964;67:23-6 sexual intercourse. In both there was a history of 3 Adams F. The seven books of Paulus Aegineta, vol. 1. marital difficulties and the abnormal belief was seen London; Sydenham Society, 1844. by therapists as a vehicle for feelings of guilt and 4 Ejaler R. Man into wsolf Santa Babra: RossErikson 1978. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine Volume 82 January 1989 39

5 Arieti S. American handbook ofpsychiatry, vol. 3, 2nd 14 Tuke DH. A dictionary of psychological medicine. edn. : Basic Books, 1974 London: Churchill, 1892. 6 Surawicz FG, Banta R. Lycanthropy revisited. Can 15 Coll -PG, O'Sullivan G, Browne PJ. Lycanthropy lives Psychiat Assoc J 1975;20:537-42 on. Br J Psychiatry 1985;147:201-2 7 Parker N. On lycanthropy or wolf-madness, a variety 16 Jackson PM. Another case of lycanthropy. Am J of insania zoanthropica. J Ment Sci 1845;2:52-3 Psychiatry, 1978;135:134-5 8 Fodor N. Lycanthropy as a mechanism. J Am 17 Rosenstock HA, Vincent KR. A case of lycanthropy. Am 1945;8:310-6 J Psychiatry 1977;34:1147-9 9 Zilboorg G. A history of medical psychology. London: 18 Keck PE, Harrison GP, Hudson JI, McElroy SL, Kulick George Allen, 1941 AR. Lycanthropy: alive and well in the twentieth 10 Jones E. On the nightmare. London: Hogarth Press, 1937 century. Psychol Med 1988;18:113-20 11 Ferrio C. La Psiche e i Nervi. Turin: Utet, 1948 19 Buchanan A. 'Barking mad'. Br J Psychiatry 1987; 12 Burton R. The anatomy ofmelancholy. London: G. Bell 51:562-3 and Sons, 1923 13 Jung CG. The development of personality. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1954 (Accepted 28 March 1988)

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