Clinical lycanthropy is a psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusional belief that the affected person is, or has, transformed into an animal. It is named after the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which people are said to physically shapeshift into werewolves. Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that studies and treats mental and emotional disorders (see mental illness). ... A delusion is commonly defined as a false belief, and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. ... Jump to: navigation, search Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Subregnum Bilateria  Acoelomorpha  Orthonectida  Rhombozoa  Myxozoa  Superphylum Deuterostomia     Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Mythology. ... In folklore, Lycanthropy is the ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a wolf. ... Jump to: navigation, search The supernatural (Latin: super- exceeding + nature) comprises forces and phenomena which are beyond the realm of current scientific understanding, and which may actually directly contradict conventional scientific understandings. ... Shapeshifting, transformation or transmogrification refers to a change in the form or shape of a person. ... Jump to: navigation, search A German Woodcut from 1722 A werewolf in folklore and mythology is a person who changes into a wolf, either by purposefully using magic or by being placed under a curse. ...

Symptoms

Affected individuals report a delusional belief that they have transformed, or are in the process of transforming into another animal. It has been linked with the altered states of mind that accompany psychosis (the reality-bending mental state that typically involves delusions and hallucinations) with the transformation only seeming to happen in the mind and behaviour of the affected person. Altered States is the only novel (ISBN 0060107278) and last film written by Paddy Chayefsky. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the mental state. ... MENTAL STATE Listening to music by the North Carolina band Something For You can send a person or, in some extreme cases, another animal posessing ears into a strange mental state in which a pleasurable sense is sent to the ears. ... A delusion is commonly defined as a false belief, and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. ... A hallucination is a sensory perception experienced in the absence of an external stimulus, as distinct from an illusion, which is a misperception of an external stimulus. ... Transformation may refer to: In molecular biology: In genetics transformation involves the genetic alteration of a cell resulting from the introduction, uptake and expression of foreign DNA. In cell division, the transformation process converts normal cells into cells that will continue to divide without limit. ... Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions or reactions of an object or organism, usually in relation to the environment. ...

A study¹ on lycanthropy from the McLean Hospital reported on a series of cases and proposed some diagnostic criteria by which lycanthropy could be recognised: McLean Hospital is a mental hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts noted in part for the large number of famous people who have been treated there, including mathematician John Nash, poets Robert Lowell and Sylvia Plath and singer-songwriter James Taylor. ...

• A patient reports in a moment of clarity or looking back he sometimes feels as an animal or has felt like one.
• A patient behaves in a manner that resembles animal behaviour, for example crying, grumbling or creeping.

According to these criteria, either a delusional belief in current or past transformation, or behaviour that suggests a person thinks of themselves as transformed, is considered evidence of clinical lycanthropy. The authors go on to note that although the condition seems to be an expression of psychosis there is no specific diagnosis of mental or neurological illness associated with its behavioural consequences. Clarity refers to ones ability to visualize an object or concept. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Scream, the famous painting commonly thought of as depicting the experience of mental illness. ... Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems. ...

It also seems that lycanthropy is not specific to an experience of human-to-wolf transformation; a wide variety of creatures have been reported as part of the shape-shifting experience. A review² of the medical literature from early 2004 lists over thirty published cases of lycanthropy, only the minority of which have wolf or dog themes. Canines are certainly not uncommon, although the experience of being transformed into cats, horses, birds and tigers has been reported on more than one occasion, with frogs, and even bees, being reported in some instances. A 1989 case study³ described how one individual reported a serial transformation, experiencing a change from human, to dog, to horse, and then finally cat, before returning to the reality of human existence after treatment. There are also reports of people who experienced transformation into an animal only listed as 'unspecified.' Jump to: navigation, search 2004(MMIV) is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Binomial name Canis lupus Linnaeus, 1758 The Grey Wolf (Canis lupus), also known colloquially as the wolf, is a mammal of the Canidae family and the ancestor of the domestic dog. ... Jump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Dog (disambiguation). ... Jump to: navigation, search Trinomial name Felis silvestris catus (Linnaeus, 1758) This article is about the domestic cat. ... Binomial name Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 The Horse (Equus caballus) is a sizeable ungulate mammal, one of the seven modern species of the genus Equus. ... Jump to: navigation, search Orders Many - see section below. ... Jump to: navigation, search Tigers (Panthera tigris) are mammals of the Felidae family and one of four big cats in the Panthera genus. ... Jump to: navigation, search Genera Afrana Amietia Amnirana Amolops Aubria Batrachylodes Ceratobatrachus Chaparana Conraua Discodeles Euphlyctis Fejervarya Hildebrandtia Hoplobatrachus Huia Indirana Ingerana Lankanectes Lanzarana Limnonectes Meristogenys Micrixalus Minervarya Nannophrys Nanorana Nyctibatrachus Occidozyga Paa Palmatorappia Platymantis Pseudoamolops Pterorana Ptychadena Pyxicephalus Rana Sphaerotheca Staurois Strongylopus Tomopterna Frogs are amphibians in the Order... Families Andrenidae Apidae Colletidae Halictidae Heterogynaidae Megachilidae Melittidae Oxaeidae Sphecidae Stenotritidae bee or bees, see bee (disambiguation). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Proposed mechanisms

Clinical lycanthropy is a rare condition and is largely considered to be an idiosyncratic expression of a psychotic-episode caused by another condition such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or clinical depression. Jump to: navigation, search Italic text The artist Edvard Munch, who is now regarded as probably having suffered from bipolar disorder, depicts intense anguish in The Scream Bipolar disorder, originally called manic-depression, is a psychological condition that causes extreme shifts in mood. ... Jump to: navigation, search Clinical depression is a health condition of depression with mental and physical components reaching criteria generally accepted by clinicians. ...

However, there are suggestions that certain neurological and cultural influences may lead to the expression of the human-animal transformation theme that defines the condition. Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the central and peripheral nervous systems. ... Look up Culture on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikinews has news related to this article: Culture and entertainment Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Cultural Development in Antiquity Dictionary of the History of Ideas: Culture and Civilization in Modern Times Classificatory system for cultures and civilizations, by Dr. Sam Vaknin...

Neurological factors

One important factor may be differences or changes in parts of the brain known to be involved in representing body shape (e.g. see proprioception, body image). A brain imaging study⁴ of two people diagnosed with clinical lycanthropy showed that these areas display unusual activation, suggesting that when people report their bodies are changing shape, they may be genuinely perceiving those feelings. Body image distortions are not unknown in mental and neurological illness, so this may help explain at least part of the process. One further puzzle is why an affected person doesn't simply report that their body "feels like it is changing in odd ways", rather than presenting with a delusional belief that they are changing into a specific animal. There is much evidence that psychosis is more than just odd perceptual experiences so perhaps lycanthropy is the result of these unusual bodily experiences being understood by an already mixed-up mind, perhaps filtered through the lens of cultural traditions and ideas. Jump to: navigation, search The human brain is the center of the central nervous system in humans and the primary control center for the peripheral nervous system. ... Proprioception (from Latin proprius, meaning ones own and perception) is the sense of the position of parts of the body, relative to other neighbouring parts of the body. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Brain imaging is a fairly recent discipline within medicine and neuroscience. ...

Cultural contributions

Cultural influences are thought to strongly influence the content of psychosis and psychosis-like experiences and we have a large cultural resource when it comes to human-to-animal transformation, as many societies have included this concept into myths, stories, or rituals (see lycanthropy for many such examples). There have also been cases of feral children seemingly raised by animals after losing their parents. Psychiatrist Lucien Malson collected more than fifty alleged cases in his landmark book Wolf Children and the Problem of Human Nature⁵. More cases have been reported since its publication in 1964, suggesting that some beliefs about lycanthropy might stem from observations of unusual maternal relationships between humans and animals. In folklore, Lycanthropy is the ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a wolf. ... A feral child is a child who has lived isolated from human contact starting from a very young age and who has remained unaware of human behaviour and unexposed to language. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

There is room to argue that the supernatural lycanthropy myths could originate from people relating their experiences of what could be now classified as psychosis. In reality the interaction between human experience and culture is difficult (perhaps impossible) to separate, and lycanthropy is no different. While mainstream psychiatry assumes that someone who believes themselves to be an animal is mentally ill, someone who deliberately tries to accomplish the same with psychoactive potions and ritual is considered a shaman in many societies around the world. The shaman is an intellectual and spiritual figure who is regarded as possessing power and influence on other peoples in the tribe and performs several functions, primarily that of a healer ( medicine man). The shaman provides medical care, and serves other community needs during crisis times, via supernatural means (means...

In earlier times the state of the patient was commonly explained as due to possession. Marcellus of Sida reported that in Greece the patients frequented the tombs at night, and that they were recognizable by their yellow complexion, hollow eyes and dry tongue. The Garrows of India are said to tear their hair when they are seized with the complaint, which is put down to the use of a drug applied to the forehead; this recalls the stories of the witch's salve in Europe. In Abyssinia the patient is usually a woman; two forms are distinguished, caused by the hyena and the leopard respectively. A kind of trance ushers in the fit; the fingers are clenched, the eyes glazed and the nostrils distended; the patient, when she comes to herself, laughs hideousliy and runs on all fours. The exorcist is a blacksmith; as a rule, he applies onion or garlic to her nose and proceeds to question the evil spirit. A tomb is a small building (or vault) for the remains of the dead, with walls, a roof, and (if it is to be used for more than one corpse) a door. ... World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Genera Crocuta Hyaena Parahyaena Proteles Hyenas (or Hyænas) are moderately large terrestrial carnivores native to Africa and Asia, and members of the family Hyaenidae. ... Binomial name Panthera pardus (Linnaeus, 1758) Leopards (Panthera pardus) are one of the four big cats of the genus Panthera. ... Binomial name Allium cepa L. Onion in the general sense can be used for any plant in the Genus Allium but used without qualifiers usually means Allium cepa L., also called the garden onion. ... Binomial name Allium sativum L. Garlic (Allium sativum) is a bulbous perennial food plant of the family Alliaceae. ... This article is about the paranormal. ...

Clinical lycanthropy has been sometimes associated with latah behaviour, described by the Malay people. However, modern latah is rarely associated with the sort of animal-transformation experiences and beliefs that are characteristic of the mainstream psychiatric definition of lycanthropy. Latah is a condition of hyperstartling found in southeast Asia that is commonly considered a culture-bound syndrome. ... Malays (Dutch, Malayo, ultimately from Malay: Melayu) are a diverse group of people living in the Malay archipelago and Malay peninsula in South East Asia. ...

See also

• Birdy (movie)
• delusion
• psychosis
• lycanthropy
• Therianthropy
• Otherkin

Birdy is a movie directed by Alan Parker staring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage, released in 1984. ... A delusion is commonly defined as a false belief, and is used in everyday language to describe a belief that is either false, fanciful or derived from deception. ... Jump to: navigation, search This article is about the mental state. ... In folklore, Lycanthropy is the ability or power of a human being to undergo transformation into a wolf. ... Therianthropy is a generic term for any transformation of a human into another animal form, either as a part of mythology or as a spiritual concept. ... Jump to: navigation, search The otherkin subculture is made up of people who describe themselves as non-human in some way, usually believing themselves to be mythological or legendary creatures. ...

External links

• Kuro5hin article on clinical lycanthropy

References

¹Keck PE, Pope HG, Hudson JI, McElroy SL, Kulick AR. (1988) Lycanthropy: alive and well in the twentieth century. Psychological Medicine, 18(1), 113-20.
²Garlipp P, Godecke-Koch T, Dietrich DE, Haltenhof H. (2004) Lycanthropy - psychopathological and psychodynamical aspects. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 109 (1), 19-22.
³Dening TR, West A. (1989) Multiple serial lycanthropy. A case report. Psychopathology, 22 (6), 344-7.
⁴Moselhy HF. (1999) Lycanthropy: new evidence of its origin. Psychopathology, 32 (4), 173-6.
⁵Malson, L. (1964/1972) Wolf Children and the Problem of Human Nature. ISBN 0853452644