Lycanthropy Information and things

I’m finaly getting around to posting the lycanthrope information.  I’m working on typing up the werewolf stuff presently. So for those of you interested in werecritters…here you go.

——————————————————————————————–

Lycanthropy

In medical literature, a clinical disorder in which a person believes himself to be transformed into a wolf, and acts accordingly. The term lycanthropy comes from lycanthrope, the Greek term for "man-wolf."

The words lycanthropia and lycanthropus made their first appearance in the English language in 1584 in the anti-witch-hunting book The Discoverie of Witchcraft by Reginald Scot. During the Inquisition, lycanthropy and werewolfism were used almost interchangeably. Lycanthropy now generally refers to the medical condition and not to mythical, magical, or demonic shape-shifting. It is linked to schizophenia, multiple personality disorder, bipolar disorder, drug abuse, clinical vampirism, mental retardation, necrophilia, and other psychological disorders.

The dominant features of lycanthropic behavior are

Profound alienation from self and society

Obsession with things demonic

Frequenting of cemeteries and other lonely places

A secret process or ritual of supposed transformation from human form to wolf form.

Belief that one actually grows fur, fangs, paws, and so on

An insatiable lust for blood

Wolflike behavior, including howling, running on all fours, gnawing objects, attacking people and animals with the intent to kill, biting and tearing at flesh, and the devouring of raw flesh, including human

Hypersexual activity, including beastiality

Post-exhaustion, confusion, and depression

Impaired mental functioning

Despite myths of magical shape-shifting and wolf clans, lycanthropy has been recognized as a medical disorder since the second century. The Greek physician Galen considered it to be a melanchoic disease with delirium. The Roman Marcellus of Side described its symptons. The Greek physician Paul of Aegina, who based his writings on those of Marcellus, was the girst to link lycanthropy to melancholia. They symptoms of lycanthropes reported by Paul are

…they are pale, their vision feeble, their eyes dry, tongue very dry, and the flow of saliva stopped; but they are thristy, and theri legs have incurable ulcerations from frequent falls.

The prescribed remedies of ancient times wer a form of medical exorcism aimed at driving the affliction out of the body: massice bloodletting to the point of fainting, a diet of "wholesome food," and baths of sweet water and milk-whey. The patient was purged with various agents, including toxic herbs. Rubbing nostrils with opium prior to sleep was prescribed – a remedy that probably exacerbated the condition rather than alleviated it.

During the Inquisition, lycanthropy was linked to demonic influences. Most demonologists considered it to be an illusion, the product of insanity or disease caused by the devil. Some believed that people made actual transformations into wolves with the help of demons. Coinciding with the witch hunts were reginal hysterias over wolves that ravaged the countryside, killing people and animals. Many peasants believed man-eating wolves to be werewolves. Some high-profile werewolf trials involved confessions of witchcraft as well as lycanthropy. Descriptions of some of the accused, such as Jean Grenier, reveal them to be probable suffers of the medical disorder.

Despite the writings of demonologists, some authorities of the 16th and 17th centuries considered lycanthropy to be madness alone, without the aid of enchantment or the devil. Among those of this opinion were Scot, the demonologist Johann Weyer, the French physician Jean Nynauld, and the Oxford cleric Robert Burton.

After the end of the Inquisition, lycanthropy was considered madness, insanity, hysteria, melancholy, and delusion well into the 19th century. With the emergence of field pyschology, lycanthropy nearly disappeared from medical literture. Between 1873 and 1975, only one case was mentioned. Carl G. Jung briefly referred to a case resembling lycanthropy in 1928 in an essay on how children are sensitive to the unconscious dynamics of their parents. In that particular case, the mother suffered insanity and would crawl around on all fours grunting like a pig, barking like a dog, and growling like a bear. The children had nightmares of her as a witch or dangerous animal.

In the mid-1970’s cases of lycanthropy and zoanthropy were recorded in medical literature, along with an increase in diagonses of multiple personality disorder. It is doubtful the lycanthropy disappeared, but probably was diagnosed as another condtion, such as paranoia and hysteria.

In pyschology, lycanthropy may be realted to the "beast within," a disspciated part of the psyche that seperates humans forom baser instincts and animalistic behavior. In Jungian terms, this par of the Shadow, a hidden, primitive, and repressed personality that may go back to humanity’s earlist ancestors. In cases of lycanthropy, this hidden side finds self expression.

Treatment for lycanthropy includes anitdepressants, neuroleptics and other medications, and pyschotherapy. Some patients have experineced partial or complete remission.

 

Porphyria

A rare congential disease sometimes associated with clinical vampirism and lycanthropy. Porphyria is due to a recessive gene and affects men more than women. It has been reported more in Sweden and Switzerland than in other geographic areas.

In porphyria, the body has an inablity to convert prophobilianogen to porphyrin in the bone marrow. Part of the hemoglobin goes into the urine rather than into the cells. The prophyrins reach toxic levels and affect the nervous system. The resulting condtions and symptoms are

Severe sensitivity to light

Reddish brown urine and teeth

Severe anemias, including haemolytic anemia

Pale and yellow, jaundiced skin

Ulcerated skin lesions

Progressive deformation of caritlage and bone, affecting especially the nose, ears, eyelids, and fingers.

In acute cases, nervous disorders such as hysteria, delirium, and manic-depression (bipolar disorder)

The symptoms are consistent with descriptions of werewolves in older literature, and with some people who exhibit a craving for blood as in the cases of clinical vampirism.

Porphyria in known as "King George III’s disease," after the English monarch who suffered from it. King George had dark red urine and suffered headaches, convulsions, and insomnia. He abruptly and inexplicabley recovered, but 13 years later a relapse sent him into a stupor.

——————————————————————————————–

Seen a fox today, carrying it’s dinner…4:30 in the afternoon! It was such a cool sight though.  I thought one of the racoons was considering coming in the house tonight. I think it’s b

een an animal day. *laughs*

Other than that…not much going on.

Woke up at 12:30 PM…and as punishment for sleeping in so late I made myself do the dishes…2 bloody hours worth!

Well…Suppose that’s it at the moment…I’ve got something written, though it’s not the exercise I’m suppose to be doing…but it’s writing…Perhaps I’ll put it up tomarrow…Though It’ll probably be on GJ tonight.