Fast forward to March 10, 2004, the day the so-called "Kobe Killer" was released from a juvenile medical reformatory on probation until the end of December 2004. Now 21-years-old, the man was just 14-years-old when he was arrested for the brutal slayings of a 10-year-old girl and 11-year-old boy, and non-lethal attacks on three other children. The murdered girl was struck on the head with a hammer, and the killer placed the decapitated head of the boy outside the gate of the boy's elementary school. The killer also taunted police with notes daring them to catch him.
At the time of his arrest, the accused boy was diagnosed as suffering from sexual sadism, and according to a March 14, 2004 Japan Times article claimed that "fighting and destruction" are hallmarks of human society, adding that "the strong are allowed to kill the weak."
Despite the almost incomprehensibly horrible crimes he committed at such an early age, the Kanto Regional Parole Board apparently based its decision to release the killer on probation on reports by reformatory officials who noted that the man "is now capable of communicating smoothly" with others, and successfully completed training that involved growing plants and penning a personal history. In a statement to journalists on the day of the man's release, the chief of the parole board even stated that "society's understanding and cooperation are indispensable".
Not so fast. How do you reassure parents of the murdered children and people who live in the local community that the man who committed such vile crimes just seven years earlier is now "truly rehabilitated"? The Japan Times article mentioned above also reports the man's recent claim that he now "wants to live in society in the company of warm-hearted people". This would sound like a joke if it were not so serious. Signs of atonement are perhaps important for parents of the murdered children, but should not cloud the atrocious facts of the case. Is it enough to apologize for the murder and beheading of a child? Authorities and citizens should recognize that such obvious mental illness is not easily apologized away without proper medical treatment, and even with drug therapy or other interventions there are always serious questions about the possibility of relapse. Assuming that tending plants alone does not quality as medical treatment, citizens should demand to know exactly what treatment the man has undergone and on what specific factors the probation decision was based. Expressions of remorse by the murderer should count for little when public safety is so clearly at risk.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Woman on toilet for two years
“Woman Who Sat on Toilet for Two Years Still 'Very Sick'”
Thursday, March 27, 2008
WICHITA, Kan. — A woman who may have spent nearly two years in a bathroom, sitting on the toilet so long that the seat adhered to sores on her body, remains hospitalized and in pain from medical procedures, family members said Wednesday. Pam Babcock, 35, was found stuck to the toilet in late February after her boyfriend, Kory McFarren, 37, called authorities to say something was wrong with her. Police believe she sat on the toilet for about a month. McFarren was charged last week with a misdemeanor count of mistreatment of a dependent adult.
Pat Bollinger, the woman's aunt, said she calls daily to the hospital to ask how Babcock is doing and asks every day to talk to her. Babcock has agreed to talk to her only once for about 10 minutes, she said. During that one call, Babcock spoke little and mostly listened as Bollinger recounted happy family memories — time spent swimming, camping and boating — from the year Babcock lived with them in Arizona when she was in fifth grade. Babcock has not spoken about her bathroom ordeal, said Bollinger, the family spokeswoman. "I didn't bring up anything," Bollinger said. "I just let her know how much I loved her and cared for her."
Babcock's relatives said that no family members have been allowed to see her at the hospital, that they know little of her medical condition and that she spends much of her time sleeping at the hospital's intensive care unit. "Her wounds are still serious. ... She is not out of the woods by any means. She is a very sick girl," Bollinger said.
Via Christi hospital officials refused Wednesday to give an update on the woman's condition.
McFarren told authorities that Babcock feared leaving the bathroom and may not have left it in two years, although he said he was unsure how long she was in there. He said that he took her food and water daily. He said that he repeatedly asked her to come out but that she usually replied "maybe tomorrow."
"The only thing I am guilty of is I didn't get her help sooner," McFarren told The Associated Press this month. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
…
“Sheriff Recommends Charging Boyfriend in Case of Woman Whose Body Became Stuck to Toilet”
By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press Writer
NESS CITY, Kan. March 14, 2008 (AP)
A man should be charged for allowing his girlfriend to sit on their toilet so long that her body became stuck to the seat, the sheriff said Thursday. Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple was among authorities who discovered the woman last month living in the bathroom of a mobile home she shared with her boyfriend, Kory McFarren. "The house was cluttered but not in shambles," he said. "The smell was overpowering — a terrible smell about the house, obviously coming from where she was at."
McFarren, 36, told police his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, 35, had a phobia about leaving the bathroom and may not have left the bathroom in two years, although he's unsure how long she was in there. He said during that time, he brought her food, water, and clean clothes. "The only thing I am guilty of is I didn't get her help sooner," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The sheriff said that judging by the woman's condition — she had open sores on which the toilet seat would stick — it appeared she likely sat on the toilet continually for at least a month. "She would have to be sleeping on the toilet," the sheriff said.
Whipple asked the county attorney to charge McFarren for mistreatment of a dependent adult. The prosecutor did not return phone calls seeking comment. "The unfortunate thing is this truly is a case of two people, in my opinion, with diminished mental capacity," Whipple said.
McFarren, who works at an antique store, said he has been taking care of Babcock for the 16 years they have lived together. He insisted that he tried to coax her out of the bathroom every day. The home has a second bathroom. McFarren said he finally called police Feb. 27 after he became worried because Babcock was acting groggy, as if she didn't know what was going on around her. What emergency responders found when they entered the bathroom has left many in the town of about 1,500 people buzzing and authorities incredulous.
Whipple said the seat was taken off the toilet so the woman could be transported to the hospital for treatment. Doctors at the Wichita hospital told the boyfriend an infection in her legs has damaged her nerves and may leave her in a wheelchair, he said.
The home of Kory McFarren is pictured on Thursday, March 13, 2008, in Ness City, Kansas, where the man's girlfriend was found in the bathroom having stayed there for long enough to become stuck to the toilet.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
WICHITA, Kan. — A woman who may have spent nearly two years in a bathroom, sitting on the toilet so long that the seat adhered to sores on her body, remains hospitalized and in pain from medical procedures, family members said Wednesday. Pam Babcock, 35, was found stuck to the toilet in late February after her boyfriend, Kory McFarren, 37, called authorities to say something was wrong with her. Police believe she sat on the toilet for about a month. McFarren was charged last week with a misdemeanor count of mistreatment of a dependent adult.
Pat Bollinger, the woman's aunt, said she calls daily to the hospital to ask how Babcock is doing and asks every day to talk to her. Babcock has agreed to talk to her only once for about 10 minutes, she said. During that one call, Babcock spoke little and mostly listened as Bollinger recounted happy family memories — time spent swimming, camping and boating — from the year Babcock lived with them in Arizona when she was in fifth grade. Babcock has not spoken about her bathroom ordeal, said Bollinger, the family spokeswoman. "I didn't bring up anything," Bollinger said. "I just let her know how much I loved her and cared for her."
Babcock's relatives said that no family members have been allowed to see her at the hospital, that they know little of her medical condition and that she spends much of her time sleeping at the hospital's intensive care unit. "Her wounds are still serious. ... She is not out of the woods by any means. She is a very sick girl," Bollinger said.
Via Christi hospital officials refused Wednesday to give an update on the woman's condition.
McFarren told authorities that Babcock feared leaving the bathroom and may not have left it in two years, although he said he was unsure how long she was in there. He said that he took her food and water daily. He said that he repeatedly asked her to come out but that she usually replied "maybe tomorrow."
"The only thing I am guilty of is I didn't get her help sooner," McFarren told The Associated Press this month. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
…
“Sheriff Recommends Charging Boyfriend in Case of Woman Whose Body Became Stuck to Toilet”
By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press Writer
NESS CITY, Kan. March 14, 2008 (AP)
A man should be charged for allowing his girlfriend to sit on their toilet so long that her body became stuck to the seat, the sheriff said Thursday. Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple was among authorities who discovered the woman last month living in the bathroom of a mobile home she shared with her boyfriend, Kory McFarren. "The house was cluttered but not in shambles," he said. "The smell was overpowering — a terrible smell about the house, obviously coming from where she was at."
McFarren, 36, told police his girlfriend, Pam Babcock, 35, had a phobia about leaving the bathroom and may not have left the bathroom in two years, although he's unsure how long she was in there. He said during that time, he brought her food, water, and clean clothes. "The only thing I am guilty of is I didn't get her help sooner," he told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The sheriff said that judging by the woman's condition — she had open sores on which the toilet seat would stick — it appeared she likely sat on the toilet continually for at least a month. "She would have to be sleeping on the toilet," the sheriff said.
Whipple asked the county attorney to charge McFarren for mistreatment of a dependent adult. The prosecutor did not return phone calls seeking comment. "The unfortunate thing is this truly is a case of two people, in my opinion, with diminished mental capacity," Whipple said.
McFarren, who works at an antique store, said he has been taking care of Babcock for the 16 years they have lived together. He insisted that he tried to coax her out of the bathroom every day. The home has a second bathroom. McFarren said he finally called police Feb. 27 after he became worried because Babcock was acting groggy, as if she didn't know what was going on around her. What emergency responders found when they entered the bathroom has left many in the town of about 1,500 people buzzing and authorities incredulous.
Whipple said the seat was taken off the toilet so the woman could be transported to the hospital for treatment. Doctors at the Wichita hospital told the boyfriend an infection in her legs has damaged her nerves and may leave her in a wheelchair, he said.
The home of Kory McFarren is pictured on Thursday, March 13, 2008, in Ness City, Kansas, where the man's girlfriend was found in the bathroom having stayed there for long enough to become stuck to the toilet.
Torture devices
Scavenger's daughter
An iron maiden stands tall on the right
A torture rack in the Tower of London
Real vampires and werewolves
Dr. Richard von Krafft-Ebing
Throughout the ages, attacks on people have been attributed to supernatural creatures like werewolves and vampires, but in 1886, a German neurologist named Richard von Krafft-Ebing noted the compulsive and sexual presentation of the attacks. He wrote about them in Psychopathia Sexualis, and many of his 238 case histories concerned a violent eroticism triggered by blood.
What seems to inspire the psychopathic or psychotic mind is the aspect of dominance mixed with blood. Many sexually compulsive murderers have described their excitement over seeing a victim's blood.
"A great number of so-called lust murders," says Krafft-Ebing, "depend upon combined sexual hyperesthesia and parasthesia. As a result of this perverse coloring of the feelings, further acts of bestiality with the corpse may result." He also points out that it's generally accepted among experts on serial sex crimes that white males commit most of the truly perverse acts.
James Riva claimed to hear the voice of a vampire in April, 1980, before he shot his grandmother four times with bullets that he had painted gold. He then tried to drink her blood from the wound in order to get eternal life. Finally, he set her corpse on fire. Carol Page documents his tale and includes her interview with Riva in “Bloodlust: Conversations with Real Vampires.”
To some degree, he claimed, it was self defense, because he was convinced she was drinking his blood while he was asleep. He believed that everyone was a vampire and that he needed to become like them. The secret, he was told by imaginary voices, was to kill someone and drink the blood. Afterward, the vampires would throw a party for him.
Fascinated with vampires since the age of 13, he drew pictures of violent acts and began to eat things with a blood-like consistency. He killed animals, including a horse (he says), to drink their blood. He also punched a friend in the nose and tried to spear another in order to get blood from them, and claimed that he had attacked strangers to get it, but didn't want to kill anyone. He kept an ax by his bedroom door and once told a psychiatrist he was going to kill his father.
Riva told a psychiatrist about the voices warning him to watch out for vampires. They said that he had to drink blood. He decided that his grandmother was using an ice pick at night to get his blood—although she was in a wheelchair. He also believed that she was poisoning his food. On the day that he killed her, he felt he was going to die.
A jury returned a verdict of second degree murder, with a life term. He stopped drinking blood in prison, he said, because he couldn't get enough and he thought his body, used to human tissue consumption, was metabolizing his.
EXAMPLES:
1) Born in 1560, Erzebet grew up experiencing uncontrollable seizures and rages. Eventually she married a sadistic man who taught her cruel methods by which to discipline the servants, such as spreading honey over a naked girl and leaving her out for the bugs. He also showed Erzebet how to beat them to the edge of their lives.
After he died in 1604, Erzebet moved to Vienna. She also stepped up her cruel and arbitrary beatings and was soon torturing and butchering the girls. She might stick pins into sensitive body parts, cut off someone's fingers, or beat her about the face until the bones broke. In the winter, women were dragged outside, doused with water, and left to freeze to death. Even when Erzebet was ill, she didn't stop. Instead she'd have girls brought to her bed so she could bite them.
It was only when she turned her blood-thirst to young noblewomen, that she got caught. After a murder in 1609 that Erzebet tried to stage as a suicide, the authorities decided to investigate. They arrested her the following year.
Erzebet went through two separate trials, and during the second one, a register in her own handwriting was discovered in her home that included the names of over 650 victims. Found guilty, she was imprisoned for life in a small room in her own castle, where she died three years later. It was afterward that rumors spread about how she'd bathed in the blood of her young victims.
2) Once he was in custody, Peter Kürten confessed to everything. He explained that he'd committed numerous assaults and 13 murders, and admitted to drinking the blood from many of his victims because blood excited him. He'd once bitten the head off a swan, he stated, and ejaculated as he drank its blood. Looking back at the 1913 incident in the inn, Kürten described how he broke into the room, choked the girl, and cut her throat. He recalled how the blood had spurted into an arc over his head, which had excited him to orgasm, and then he drank some. It was his own handkerchief, with the initials, P.K. that had been found there.
There were other murders, he added, that inspired him to drink blood from throat wounds he made, and a couple of times he became sexually excited after taking a hatchet to a stranger.
At his trial, defense psychiatrists declared him insane, but the jury ignored them. He was sentenced on nine counts of murder to be executed in 1931. Just before dying, when some express remorse, Kürten expressed a desire to hear his own blood bubble forth after the blade came down.
Peter Kürten
Feral people
The term "feral" means wild or undomesticated. Psychologists have studied feral children--children reared in complete or nearly complete isolation from human contact--to gain insights into aspects of human socialization and development. When feral children enter human society after their developmental years in isolation, they often continue to be seriously retarded.
Interest in feral humans began as early as the 1700s when Swedish naturalist and physician Carl Linnaeus developed the system of scientific classification for plants and animals. He included the classification of loco ferus – “feral" or "wolf" men, characterized as four-footed, non-speaking, and hairy. The 1994 film Nell was based on the true story of a young woman introduced to society after living for years in near-isolation.
Victor, the "wild boy of Aveyron," is the most famous case of a human being surviving in total isolation for an extended period of time. Discovered in 1799, Victor had been lost or abandoned in childhood, apparently surviving on his own in the wild up to the age of 11. Philippe Pinel, pioneering French psychiatrist and director of the Bicêtre asylum in Paris, declared Victor an incurable idiot. But Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, a physician and teacher of the deaf, undertook to educate Victor. Although he remained almost totally unable to speak, Victor showed great improvements in socialization and cognitive ability in the course of several years spent working with Itard. In 1807, Itard published Rapports sur le sauvage de l'Aveyron (Reports on the Wild Boy of Aveyron), a classic work on human educability, detailing his work with Victor between the years 1801-05.
Another well-known historical case involves a young man named Kaspar Hauser who appeared in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1828. He had apparently been locked up in isolation for an extended period, but without being totally deprived of human care. A 17-year-old with the mentality of a child of three, Hauser was reeducated over the next five years. His development had been stunted by extreme social and sensory deprivation, but the process of reeducation enabled Hauser to communicate verbally, although his speech was substandard.
Despite the persistence and popularity of stories about children reared by animals throughout history, well-documented cases of such children are very rare. In most cases the documentation begins with the discovery of the child, so that virtually nothing is known about the time actually spent in the company of animals. The best-known modern case of zoanthropy (humans living among animals) is that of the so-called "wolf children of Midnapore" (India). In 1920, two young girls, Kamala (about age 8) and Amala (about one and a half), were observed living with wolves in India. When they were discovered, their "rescuers" actually removed them from the embrace of a pair of wolf cubs in order to take them back to society. Not only did they exhibit the physical behavior of wolves – running on all fours, eating raw meat, and staying active at night – they displayed physiological adaptations to their feral life, including modifications of the jaw resulting from chewing on bones. The girls were taken to an orphanage where they were cared for and exposed to human society. Amala died within two years, but Kamala lived there for nine years, achieving a moderate degree of socialization.
The study of feral children has focused on some of the central philosophical and scientific controversies about human nature. Researchers have engaged in debates about which human activities require social instruction, whether there is a critical period for language acquisition, and to what extent education can compensate for delayed development and limited intelligence. Itard's pioneering work with the "wild boy of Aveyron" has had an impact on both education of the disabled and early childhood education. Educators like Maria Montessori have taken the study of feral children seriously. In 1909, Montessori wrote that she felt the work of Itard provided a foundation for her own work with young children.
Interest in feral humans began as early as the 1700s when Swedish naturalist and physician Carl Linnaeus developed the system of scientific classification for plants and animals. He included the classification of loco ferus – “feral" or "wolf" men, characterized as four-footed, non-speaking, and hairy. The 1994 film Nell was based on the true story of a young woman introduced to society after living for years in near-isolation.
Victor, the "wild boy of Aveyron," is the most famous case of a human being surviving in total isolation for an extended period of time. Discovered in 1799, Victor had been lost or abandoned in childhood, apparently surviving on his own in the wild up to the age of 11. Philippe Pinel, pioneering French psychiatrist and director of the Bicêtre asylum in Paris, declared Victor an incurable idiot. But Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard, a physician and teacher of the deaf, undertook to educate Victor. Although he remained almost totally unable to speak, Victor showed great improvements in socialization and cognitive ability in the course of several years spent working with Itard. In 1807, Itard published Rapports sur le sauvage de l'Aveyron (Reports on the Wild Boy of Aveyron), a classic work on human educability, detailing his work with Victor between the years 1801-05.
Another well-known historical case involves a young man named Kaspar Hauser who appeared in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1828. He had apparently been locked up in isolation for an extended period, but without being totally deprived of human care. A 17-year-old with the mentality of a child of three, Hauser was reeducated over the next five years. His development had been stunted by extreme social and sensory deprivation, but the process of reeducation enabled Hauser to communicate verbally, although his speech was substandard.
Despite the persistence and popularity of stories about children reared by animals throughout history, well-documented cases of such children are very rare. In most cases the documentation begins with the discovery of the child, so that virtually nothing is known about the time actually spent in the company of animals. The best-known modern case of zoanthropy (humans living among animals) is that of the so-called "wolf children of Midnapore" (India). In 1920, two young girls, Kamala (about age 8) and Amala (about one and a half), were observed living with wolves in India. When they were discovered, their "rescuers" actually removed them from the embrace of a pair of wolf cubs in order to take them back to society. Not only did they exhibit the physical behavior of wolves – running on all fours, eating raw meat, and staying active at night – they displayed physiological adaptations to their feral life, including modifications of the jaw resulting from chewing on bones. The girls were taken to an orphanage where they were cared for and exposed to human society. Amala died within two years, but Kamala lived there for nine years, achieving a moderate degree of socialization.
The study of feral children has focused on some of the central philosophical and scientific controversies about human nature. Researchers have engaged in debates about which human activities require social instruction, whether there is a critical period for language acquisition, and to what extent education can compensate for delayed development and limited intelligence. Itard's pioneering work with the "wild boy of Aveyron" has had an impact on both education of the disabled and early childhood education. Educators like Maria Montessori have taken the study of feral children seriously. In 1909, Montessori wrote that she felt the work of Itard provided a foundation for her own work with young children.
Boanthropy
In cases of boanthropy, victims come to believe that they are in fact cows. Having arrived at this belief, they begin to act like cows.
Boanthropy is related to lycanthropy. People afflicted with lycanthropy think that they are wolves. Legends of were-wolves were probably started by individuals afflicted with the condition. One could refer to an individual with boanthropy as a 'were-cow'. Were-cows have gained nowhere near the notoriety of were-wolves, perhaps because no one cares what happens to grass.
Boanthropy is related to lycanthropy. People afflicted with lycanthropy think that they are wolves. Legends of were-wolves were probably started by individuals afflicted with the condition. One could refer to an individual with boanthropy as a 'were-cow'. Were-cows have gained nowhere near the notoriety of were-wolves, perhaps because no one cares what happens to grass.
Lycanthropy
Some sources derive the word from warg-wolf, where warg (or later werg and wero) is cognate with Old Norse vargr, meaning "rogue," "outlaw," or, euphemistically, "wolf".
A Vargulf was the kind of wolf that slaughtered many members of a flock or herd but ate little of the kill. This was a serious problem for herders, who had to somehow destroy the rogue wolf before it destroyed the entire flock or herd. The term Warg was used in Old English for this kind of wolf (see J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit) and for what would now be called a serial killer. Possibly related is the fact that, in Norse society, an outlaw (who could be murdered with no legal repercussions and was forbidden to receive aid) was typically called vargr, or "wolf."
There is also a mental illness called lycanthropy in which a patient believes he or she is, or has transformed into, an animal and behaves accordingly. This is sometimes referred to as clinical lycanthropy to distinguish it from its use in legends. Despite its origin as a term for man-wolf transformations only, lycanthropy is used in this sense for animals of any type.
A Case of Lycanthropy
Harvey Rostenstock, M.D. and Kenneth R. Vincent, Ed.D.
The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 134, No. 10. October 1977
Lycanthropy, a psychosis in which the patient has delusions of being a wild animal (usually a wolf), has been recorded since antiquity. The Book of Daniel describes King Nebuchadnezzar as suffering from depression that deteriorated over a seven-year period into a frank psychosis at which time he imagined himself a wolf. Among the first medical descriptions were those of Paulus Aegineta during the later days of the Roman Empire. In his description of the symptom complex, Aegineta made reference to Greek mythology in which Zeus turned King Lycaon of Arcadia into a raging wolf. Thereafter, references to lycanthropy appeared in the ancient literature. Many medieval theologians envisioned lycanthropy as a consequence of the evil eye.
Delusions of being a wolf or some other feared animal are universal and, although rare in the industrialized countries, still occur in China, India, Africa, and Central and South America. The animals in the delusioned transformation include leopards, lions, elephants, crocodiles, sharks, buffalo, eagles, and serpents.
Not infrequently, bizarre and chaotic sexuality is expressed in a primitive way through the lycanthropic symptom complex. Patients whose internal fears exceed their coping mechanisms may externalize them via projection and constitute a serious threat to others. Throughout the ages, such individuals have been feared because of their tendencies to commit bestial acts and were themselves hunted and killed by the populace. Many of these people were paranoid schizophrenics.
Case Report:
A 49-year-old married woman presented on an urgent basis for psychiatric evaluation because of delusions of being a wolf and "feeling like an animal with claws." She suffered from extreme apprehension and felt that she was no longer in control of her own fate: she said, "A voice was coming out of me." Throughout her 20-year marriage she experienced compulsive urges towards bestiality, lesbianism, and adultery.
The patient chronically ruminated and dreamed about wolves. One week before her admission, she acted on these ruminations for the first time. At a family gathering, she disrobed, assumed the female sexual posture of a wolf, and offered herself to her mother. This episode lasted for approximately 20 minutes. The following night, after coitus with her husband, the patient suffered a 2-hour episode, during which time she growled, scratched, and gnawed at the bed. She stated that the devil came into her body and she became an animal. Simultaneously, she experienced auditory hallucinations. There was no drug involvement or alcoholic intoxication.
Hospital course. The patient was treated in a structured inpatient program. She was seen daily for individual psychotherapy and was placed on neuroleptic medication. During the first 3 weeks, she suffered relapses when she said such things as "I am a wolf of the night; I am a wolf woman of the day...I have claws, teeth, fangs, hair... and anguish is my prey at night...the gnashing and snarling of teeth...powerless is my cause, I am what I am and will always roam the earth long after death...I will continue to search for perfection and salvation.
She would peer into a mirror and look frightened because her eyes looked different: "One is frightened and the other is like the wolf--it was dark, deep, and full of evil, and full of revenge of the other eye. This creature of the dark wanted to kill." During these periods, she felt sexually aroused and tormented. She experienced strong homosexual urges, almost irresistable zoophilic drives, and masturbatory compulsions--culminating in the delusion of a wolflike metamorphosis. She would gaze into the mirror and see "the head of a wolf in place of a face on my own body--just a long-nosed wolf with teeth, groaning, snarling, growling...with fangs and claws, calling out "I am the devil." Others around her noticed the unintelligible, animal-like noises she made.
By the fourth week she had stabilized considerably, reporting, "I went and looked into a mirror and the wolf eye was gone." There was only other short-lived relapse, which responded to reassurance by experienced personnel. With the termination of that episode, which occurred on the night of a full moon, she wrote what she experienced: "I don't intend to give up my search for (what) I lack...in my present marriage...my search for such a hairy creature. I will haunt the graveyards...for a tall, dark man that I intend to find." She was discharged during the ninth week of hospitalization on neuroleptic medication.
Psychological data. On the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the patients performance showed normal intellect; the subscale configuration was devoid of behavioral correlates associated with organicity, as was the Bender Motor Gestalt Test. On the Holtzman Ink Blot Technique, the performance was indicative of an acutely psychotic schizophrenic with distorted body image and gross sexual preoccupation. The Lovinger Sentence Completion Blank was corroborative. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was interpreted as showing an acute schizophrenic reaction with evidence of obsessional thinking, marked feelings of inferiority, and excessive needs for attention and affection.
Discussion:
We believed that the patient suffered from chronic pseudoneurotic schizophrenia. What is of particular interest is that the delusional material was organized about a lycanthropic matrix. Her symptom complex included the following classic symptoms:
1. Delusions of werewolf transformation under extreme stress.
2. Preoccupation with religious phenomenology, including feeling victimized by the evil eye.
3. Reference to obsessive need to frequent graveyards and woods.
4. Primitive expression of aggressive and sexual urges in the form of bestiality.
5. Physiological concomitants of acute anxiety.
These symptoms occurred significantly in the absence of exposure to toxic substances. Furthermore, the patient responded to the treatment protocol used for acute schizophrenia psychosis. After reviewing ancient and modern literature, it is felt that the differential diagnosis for lycanthropy should include consideration of all of the following possibilities: 1) schizophrenia, 2) organic brain syndrome with psychosis, 3) psychotic depressive reaction, 4) hysterical neurosis of the dissociative type, 5) manic-depressive psychosis, and 6) psychomotor epilepsy. The last item is mentioned because of the reports that individuals suffering from lycanthropy have been described as being "prone to epilepsy" and suffering from intercurrent amnestic episodes.
A search of modern literature produced three cases. In two cases, the patients were ultimately diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia, facilitated by involvement with hallucinogenic drugs, and chronic brain syndrome with periodic psychoses. In the third case, described by Morrell in 1852, it seems that the patient was suffering from a deteriorating psychotic depression.
We believed that the metamorphosis undergone by the patient we have described provided temporary relief from an otherwise consuming sexual conflict that might have taken the form of a completed suicide.
Clinical lycanthropy is defined as a rare psychiatric syndrome which involves a delusion that the affected person can or has transformed into an animal, or that he or she is an anima. Its name is connected to the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which people are said to physically shape-shift into wolves. The word zoanthropy is also sometimes used for the delusion that one has turned into an animal in general and not specifically a wolf.
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 faltered 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 behavior of the affected person.
A study on lycanthropy from the McLean Hospital reported on a series of cases and proposed some diagnostic criteria by which lycanthropy could be recognized:
1. A patient reports in a moment of lucidity or looking back he sometimes feels as an animal or has felt like one.
2. A patient behaves in a manner that resembles animal behavior, for example crying, grumbling, creeping, or attacking another human for food (cannibalism).
According to these criteria, either a delusional belief in current or past transformation, or behavior 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 behavioral consequences.
A review 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 hyenas, cats, horses, birds, and tigers has been reported on more than one occasion. Transformation into frogs, and even bees, has been reported in some instances. A 1989 case study 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'.
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.
One important factor may be differences or changes in parts of the brain known to be involved in representing body shape (see proprioception). A neuroimaging study 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.
A Vargulf was the kind of wolf that slaughtered many members of a flock or herd but ate little of the kill. This was a serious problem for herders, who had to somehow destroy the rogue wolf before it destroyed the entire flock or herd. The term Warg was used in Old English for this kind of wolf (see J. R. R. Tolkien's book The Hobbit) and for what would now be called a serial killer. Possibly related is the fact that, in Norse society, an outlaw (who could be murdered with no legal repercussions and was forbidden to receive aid) was typically called vargr, or "wolf."
There is also a mental illness called lycanthropy in which a patient believes he or she is, or has transformed into, an animal and behaves accordingly. This is sometimes referred to as clinical lycanthropy to distinguish it from its use in legends. Despite its origin as a term for man-wolf transformations only, lycanthropy is used in this sense for animals of any type.
A Case of Lycanthropy
Harvey Rostenstock, M.D. and Kenneth R. Vincent, Ed.D.
The American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 134, No. 10. October 1977
Lycanthropy, a psychosis in which the patient has delusions of being a wild animal (usually a wolf), has been recorded since antiquity. The Book of Daniel describes King Nebuchadnezzar as suffering from depression that deteriorated over a seven-year period into a frank psychosis at which time he imagined himself a wolf. Among the first medical descriptions were those of Paulus Aegineta during the later days of the Roman Empire. In his description of the symptom complex, Aegineta made reference to Greek mythology in which Zeus turned King Lycaon of Arcadia into a raging wolf. Thereafter, references to lycanthropy appeared in the ancient literature. Many medieval theologians envisioned lycanthropy as a consequence of the evil eye.
Delusions of being a wolf or some other feared animal are universal and, although rare in the industrialized countries, still occur in China, India, Africa, and Central and South America. The animals in the delusioned transformation include leopards, lions, elephants, crocodiles, sharks, buffalo, eagles, and serpents.
Not infrequently, bizarre and chaotic sexuality is expressed in a primitive way through the lycanthropic symptom complex. Patients whose internal fears exceed their coping mechanisms may externalize them via projection and constitute a serious threat to others. Throughout the ages, such individuals have been feared because of their tendencies to commit bestial acts and were themselves hunted and killed by the populace. Many of these people were paranoid schizophrenics.
Case Report:
A 49-year-old married woman presented on an urgent basis for psychiatric evaluation because of delusions of being a wolf and "feeling like an animal with claws." She suffered from extreme apprehension and felt that she was no longer in control of her own fate: she said, "A voice was coming out of me." Throughout her 20-year marriage she experienced compulsive urges towards bestiality, lesbianism, and adultery.
The patient chronically ruminated and dreamed about wolves. One week before her admission, she acted on these ruminations for the first time. At a family gathering, she disrobed, assumed the female sexual posture of a wolf, and offered herself to her mother. This episode lasted for approximately 20 minutes. The following night, after coitus with her husband, the patient suffered a 2-hour episode, during which time she growled, scratched, and gnawed at the bed. She stated that the devil came into her body and she became an animal. Simultaneously, she experienced auditory hallucinations. There was no drug involvement or alcoholic intoxication.
Hospital course. The patient was treated in a structured inpatient program. She was seen daily for individual psychotherapy and was placed on neuroleptic medication. During the first 3 weeks, she suffered relapses when she said such things as "I am a wolf of the night; I am a wolf woman of the day...I have claws, teeth, fangs, hair... and anguish is my prey at night...the gnashing and snarling of teeth...powerless is my cause, I am what I am and will always roam the earth long after death...I will continue to search for perfection and salvation.
She would peer into a mirror and look frightened because her eyes looked different: "One is frightened and the other is like the wolf--it was dark, deep, and full of evil, and full of revenge of the other eye. This creature of the dark wanted to kill." During these periods, she felt sexually aroused and tormented. She experienced strong homosexual urges, almost irresistable zoophilic drives, and masturbatory compulsions--culminating in the delusion of a wolflike metamorphosis. She would gaze into the mirror and see "the head of a wolf in place of a face on my own body--just a long-nosed wolf with teeth, groaning, snarling, growling...with fangs and claws, calling out "I am the devil." Others around her noticed the unintelligible, animal-like noises she made.
By the fourth week she had stabilized considerably, reporting, "I went and looked into a mirror and the wolf eye was gone." There was only other short-lived relapse, which responded to reassurance by experienced personnel. With the termination of that episode, which occurred on the night of a full moon, she wrote what she experienced: "I don't intend to give up my search for (what) I lack...in my present marriage...my search for such a hairy creature. I will haunt the graveyards...for a tall, dark man that I intend to find." She was discharged during the ninth week of hospitalization on neuroleptic medication.
Psychological data. On the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the patients performance showed normal intellect; the subscale configuration was devoid of behavioral correlates associated with organicity, as was the Bender Motor Gestalt Test. On the Holtzman Ink Blot Technique, the performance was indicative of an acutely psychotic schizophrenic with distorted body image and gross sexual preoccupation. The Lovinger Sentence Completion Blank was corroborative. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was interpreted as showing an acute schizophrenic reaction with evidence of obsessional thinking, marked feelings of inferiority, and excessive needs for attention and affection.
Discussion:
We believed that the patient suffered from chronic pseudoneurotic schizophrenia. What is of particular interest is that the delusional material was organized about a lycanthropic matrix. Her symptom complex included the following classic symptoms:
1. Delusions of werewolf transformation under extreme stress.
2. Preoccupation with religious phenomenology, including feeling victimized by the evil eye.
3. Reference to obsessive need to frequent graveyards and woods.
4. Primitive expression of aggressive and sexual urges in the form of bestiality.
5. Physiological concomitants of acute anxiety.
These symptoms occurred significantly in the absence of exposure to toxic substances. Furthermore, the patient responded to the treatment protocol used for acute schizophrenia psychosis. After reviewing ancient and modern literature, it is felt that the differential diagnosis for lycanthropy should include consideration of all of the following possibilities: 1) schizophrenia, 2) organic brain syndrome with psychosis, 3) psychotic depressive reaction, 4) hysterical neurosis of the dissociative type, 5) manic-depressive psychosis, and 6) psychomotor epilepsy. The last item is mentioned because of the reports that individuals suffering from lycanthropy have been described as being "prone to epilepsy" and suffering from intercurrent amnestic episodes.
A search of modern literature produced three cases. In two cases, the patients were ultimately diagnosed as having paranoid schizophrenia, facilitated by involvement with hallucinogenic drugs, and chronic brain syndrome with periodic psychoses. In the third case, described by Morrell in 1852, it seems that the patient was suffering from a deteriorating psychotic depression.
We believed that the metamorphosis undergone by the patient we have described provided temporary relief from an otherwise consuming sexual conflict that might have taken the form of a completed suicide.
Clinical lycanthropy is defined as a rare psychiatric syndrome which involves a delusion that the affected person can or has transformed into an animal, or that he or she is an anima. Its name is connected to the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which people are said to physically shape-shift into wolves. The word zoanthropy is also sometimes used for the delusion that one has turned into an animal in general and not specifically a wolf.
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 faltered 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 behavior of the affected person.
A study on lycanthropy from the McLean Hospital reported on a series of cases and proposed some diagnostic criteria by which lycanthropy could be recognized:
1. A patient reports in a moment of lucidity or looking back he sometimes feels as an animal or has felt like one.
2. A patient behaves in a manner that resembles animal behavior, for example crying, grumbling, creeping, or attacking another human for food (cannibalism).
According to these criteria, either a delusional belief in current or past transformation, or behavior 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 behavioral consequences.
A review 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 hyenas, cats, horses, birds, and tigers has been reported on more than one occasion. Transformation into frogs, and even bees, has been reported in some instances. A 1989 case study 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'.
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.
One important factor may be differences or changes in parts of the brain known to be involved in representing body shape (see proprioception). A neuroimaging study 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.
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