In honor of last week's super moon lunar eclipse (or if you live in Western Pennsylvania or Ohio, cloud cover with a slight reddish tint), in addition to the fact it's the start of October, I thought it might be fun to talk about werewolves. More specifically, let’s briefly discuss clinical lycanthropy and its potential origins.
Clinical lycanthropy in its broadest definition is a condition in which the patient believes they are capable of transforming into or have transformed into a nonhuman creature. A popular example of such cases are those in which people believe themselves to be able to transform into a wolf; however, those with clinical lycanthropy have been known to believe they can transform into a variety of other creatures. The patient may feel as if they are transforming into an animal or are developing animalistic characteristics, such growing claws. In addition, it is possible that the patient may even exhibit nonhuman, animalistic behaviors.
There are several possible explanations for what exactly causes clinical lycanthropy. The condition is often thought to be associated with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or clinical depression. Another explanation is that clinical lycanthropy can be attributed to neurological factors. In his paper discussing clinical lycanthropy, Hamdy F. Moselhy discusses the possible neurological factors of clinical lycanthropy. In his first case study, he describes the case of a 59 year old woman who had been admitted to the hospital several times for severe depression. The during her last stay, the woman overdosed on the drug temazepam; she said she had done so in order to escape from the belief that claws were growing from her feet. An EEG supported that she had experienced temporal lobe epilepsy. Moselhy goes on to discuss that her diagnosis of epilepsy could have contributed to her partial lycanthropy. In addition, an MRI done on the patient also suggests her partial lycanthropy can be attributed to lesions upon the parietal lobe, an area of the brain in which is an important component of the brain that integrates sensory information from several areas of the body. Such information provides a medical origin to her condition.
Of course, this is just one study; several others have been published since discussing what causes clinical lycanthropy. An article published on the studies of Dr. Jan Dirk Blom last year examined several cases of lycanthropy. Blom also details how that certain areas of the brain that enable the individual to create a sense of physical existence and body schema are possibly responsible for cases of lycanthropy for certain patients, contributing to their belief that they are changing in physical appearance.
The concept of shapeshifting has been around for centuries, an interesting concept that has maintained interest throughout human history, especially with the ideas of the werewolf and lycanthropy. In popular culture, we see it all the time in horror and fantasy media, where the individual turns into a wolf or werewolf under the light of the full moon. For us, it’s cool and fun to imagine the idea of becoming a werewolf or really having the ability to transform into any creature we want to be. However, one cannot actually turn into an animal, and for those who suffer from clinical lycanthropy, it can be a terrifying, unpleasant experience.
