Lycanthropy is one of the most mysterious phenomena of modern psychiatry. This disease came from the Middle Ages, in which it was feared and considered a reality. Its modern manifestation is devoid of signs of mysticism, but it has full-fledged clinical signs and a mechanism of treatment.
Lycanthropy - what is it?
Any psychotherapist or psychiatrist can answer a question about what is lycanthropy. This is a disorder of self-perception and behavior, suggesting that its owner considers himself an animal or exhibits his own habits. Banal persuasion does not work here, because the patient sincerely believes in his second "I", considering the "unmaskers" as liars.
In the Middle Ages, doctors refused to consider this obsessive syndrome a disease. "Treatment" involved the church, suggesting under it the imprisonment in the monastery or burning at the stake. This did not contribute to the study of the syndrome, so relatively little is known about it. The modern institution of Groningen in the Netherlands studies this disorder and collects all known cases.
Lycanthropia disease
Clinical lycanthropy is caused by the violation of certain parts of the cerebral cortex responsible for movement and sensation. With the help of the sensory shell of the brain, a person forms a representation, both about the surrounding world, and about himself. Defects of the shell allow the owner of the syndrome to consider himself an animal and visualize his behavioral habits.
Mental Illness lycanthropy
It is worth acknowledging that lycanthropy in humans (from the Greek "lycos" - the wolf and "anthropos" - man) is indeed a mental disorder. To psychology, it has an indirect relationship: this disease can not be a temporary imbalance on the basis of stress or reduced self-esteem . "Werewolves" always have paranoid nonsense, acute psychosis, bipolar personality disorder or epilepsy.
Lycanthropy - symptoms
Werewolf syndrome, due to its rarity and little study, has a vague list of symptoms easily attributed to a whole list of mental deformations. No matter how unique lycanthropy is, its signs are similar to schizophrenia:
- Obsessive thoughts . The patient is convinced that he is a representative of the animal world or knows how to turn into it at will.
- Chronic insomnia and activity at night . People with such disorders do not sleep much, but not at all because they work at night.
- Desire to share your "secret" with the world . The patient justifies any actions with his second "I" and is not afraid to tell friends and acquaintances about it.
How to recover from lycanthropy?
A specialized medicine for lycanthropy has not yet been invented. Her symptoms are muffled in the same ways that treat similar diseases with a distorted perception of her personality. These include antidepressants of varying strength, medications for insomnia and regular conversations with psychotherapists. Unfortunately, the disease can be stabilized, but not cured completely.
Psychiatrists are still acquainted with all possible manifestations of lycanthropy, since it is no less diverse than the animal world. People - "werewolves" meet less often or avoid meeting with doctors, unconsciously guessing about the extraordinary nature of their disease. It is difficult to treat, but easily controlled by doctors.
Is lycanthropy a myth or a reality?
Disputes about whether there is lycanthropy and how widespread it is, are regularly conducted among physicians. In this it is similar to porphyria, a vampire disease caused by genetic abnormalities caused by marriages between relatives. With it, the production of hemoglobin is broken, provoking a rapid destruction of the skin under the influence of sunlight.
Porphyria and lycanthropy are similar in that earlier they were considered features of character of fairy-tale characters. With the development of medicine, it turned out that myths and children's "horror stories" exaggerated the real problems with health. Werewolf syndrome was considered a violation of psychology in 1850: from that moment doctors counted 56 people who consider themselves to be werewolves, able to turn into a wild or domestic animal.
Lycanthropy - real cases in our days
Such an unusual disease of lycanthropy, the real cases of which are not so common, causes people to associate themselves with the wolf. Of the 56 cases, 13 were related to the fact that the patient considered himself an animal and flatly refused to believe in his "human" origin. The rest of the "werewolves" were confident that they were snakes, dogs, cats, frogs or bees. Doctors are surprised to admit that they were confident that they would have to face a large number of patients.
The most studied remains the werewolf syndrome, overtaken by the Spanish serial killer Manuel Blanco, who came to the doctors in 1852. He got the court to recognize that part of the crimes were committed by the wolf into which he was turning. Trying to convince psychiatrists of his rightness, he showed them imaginary fangs and demanded only raw meat for lunch. When looking in the mirror, Manuel said that he saw a wolf there.