Lycanthropy

[Trey of Diamonds]

Following is a psychiatric Lycanthropy case report of a woman who believed herself to be a werewolf. Could there be anything paranormal involved or do you think it's purely mental?

A 49-year-old married woman presented on an urgent basis for psychiatric evalution 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.​

 

[Azakel]

Though I would like to believe that things like this could be real, as an Occultist I have learned to make chooses about thing like this with an Open-Mind. I think it's just a Metal thing with her, there are a lot of causes like this to out there. The changing into a Were-Beast seems a bit out there even for me who believes in things like Magic. Though if I remember right I hard that Quantum mechanics, is a possible theory(though I could most likely be wrong).

 

[3.14]

am i the only one who though they should just have taped her?

compulsive urges towards bestiality, lesbianism, and adultery.and masturbatory compulsions
calling out "I am the devil." Others around her noticed the unintelligible, animal-like noises she made.


sounds like something you would find on the web right

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

But taking the physical transformation out of the equation, could there be a link between the animal and the human? Throughout history and in multiple cultures there is a link between the human soul and the animal. Spirit guides and animal totems are some examples from recent history and Celtic Animal allies are older examples from Europe. Are these versions of Lycanthropy as well?

 

[3.14]

no those are more respect for nature and desire to harnish animal skills as there own

 

[Comicaze247]

Well, since I believe in past lives, I'm thinking that she was a wolf in many past lives, and the residual energy from those lives are affecting her current one. What I don't like is that she equated "wolf" to "evil" . . .

 

[Valjean]

Psychosis is common. A woman becomes delusional. What does this have to do with the paranorml?

 

[Twilight Hue]

I agree with Seyorni. No question it's a mental disturbance. I do find it a bit strange that there were no medical tests mentioned in the article, that could point toward any physical condition or abnormality. I'm hard pressed to accept any paranormal explanation for it. -NM-

 

[3.14]

might be psychosis but its still odd behavior even for psychosis

 

[Valjean]

It's a perfectly ordinary and unremarkable psychotic delusion.

You've never worked in a mental facility, have you? You should hear some of the delusions.:yes:

 

[3.14]

well i parttimed at one but most cases of delution were much more incoherent ( closest thing resembling her was a guy who had Alice in Wonderland Syndrome)

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

Psychosis is common. A woman becomes delusional. What does this have to do with the paranorml?

Possibly nothing, what do you consider spirit guide experiences? Are those examples of psychosis as well?

 

[Valjean]

Technically, a psychosis must be dysfunctional as well as delusional. A non-dysfunctional hallucination does not qualify.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

Technically, a psychosis must be dysfunctional as well as delusional. A non-dysfunctional hallucination does not qualify.

But that means psychosis is based on environmental conditions as well. A shaman sitting in the jungle talking to his spirit guide is not a psychosis but if he is doing it on a street corner in New York it is? Same could have been said of this woman. Put her in a primative setting several hundred years ago and she would have been a skin walker rather than a raving lunatic. Of course she could also have been burned at the stake as well, depending on the environment she was located in.

So, take the environmental diagnosis out of the equation. Could the woman in the example's condition be related to that of other animal spiritual aspects of some religions and cultures? And if so, could that point towards something other than mere mental sickness? Something more spiritual?

 

[Valjean]

But that means psychosis is based on environmental conditions as well. A shaman sitting in the jungle talking to his spirit guide is not a psychosis but if he is doing it on a street corner in New York it is? Same could have been said of this woman. Put her in a primative setting several hundred years ago and she would have been a skin walker rather than a raving lunatic. Of course she could also have been burned at the stake as well, depending on the environment she was located in.

You've hit the nail on the head, my friend. Psychosis is not necessarily completely objective. It can be situational.

So, take the environmental diagnosis out of the equation. Could the woman in the example's condition be related to that of other animal spiritual aspects of some religions and cultures? And if so, could that point towards something other than mere mental sickness? Something more spiritual?

I've always found the line between spirituality and mental sickness to be annoyingly fuzzy.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I've always found the line between spirituality and mental sickness to be annoyingly fuzzy.

There's a line?

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

I've always found the line between spirituality and mental sickness to be annoyingly fuzzy.

But this isn't an answer to the question. Which side of the fuzzy line do you think these types of cases fall on?

 

[Elessar]

It would seem to me that she is merely experiencing a mental disorder. It is quite possible that whatever it is she suffers from, if it is much different from more standard psychosis episodes in patients (then again, what is standard?), is what caused the legends of lycanthropy.

 

[Trey of Diamonds]

It would seem to me that she is merely experiencing a mental disorder. It is quite possible that whatever it is she suffers from, if it is much different from more standard psychosis episodes in patients (then again, what is standard?), is what caused the legends of lycanthropy.

Agreed. Do you think there is any connection to what she is experiencing and other animal related spiritual experiences such as spirit guides or animal allies? Could these be mild forms of the same disorder?

And to turn it around, could these be truely spiritual experieces that are being mistaken as a disorder? What is the difference in animal related spiritual events and Christian related spiritual events?

Oooo, and don't forget Christian/animal related spiritual events. Are snake handlers suffering from a disorder?

 

[Elessar]

Agreed. Do you think there is any connection to what she is experiencing and other animal related spiritual experiences such as spirit guides or animal allies? Could these be mild forms of the same disorder?

And to turn it around, could these be truely spiritual experieces that are being mistaken as a disorder? What is the difference in animal related spiritual events and Christian related spiritual events?

Oooo, and don't forget Christian/animal related spiritual events. Are snake handlers suffering from a disorder?

I would say they probably are related forms of the same disorder, or maybe even, as you put it, spiritual experiences. But, then, I highly doubt the latter, at least in this particular case, since she has been seriously disturbed by what has occurred to her, and I do not believe G-d would do that to a person. Unless it is a spiritual experience caused by the Adversary.

I suspect all who claim a spiritual experience. While I do not deny that spiritual experiences come in many shapes and forms, and G-d can do anything, I don't trust others' because, honestly, if G-d meant to tell me something, he would have told me.