Multiple Serial Lycanthropy

Abstract

A case is described who exhibited lycanthropy during an acute psychotic illness. During a short period she experienced herself as four different species of animal, an occurrence not previously reported. The phenomenon of lycanthropy is most appropriately regarded as a delusion, but the abnormal subjective experience is stressed, not just the falsely-held belief.

Delusions of Transformation of the Self

“…The 3 patients who identified with animals such as reptiles or insects had lived in arid areas where exposure to such animals was commonplace. One patient experienced serial therioanthropic delusions, a rare type of delu sion [4],…”

“…In that year Courbon and Tusques published the case of a 49-year-old woman who believed that her husband and son had been transformed into people with minds and bodies different from their original identities. They called this pre sentation the syndrome of intermetamorpho sis [ 1,2], Since that time, cases have also been reported indicating that delusions of meta morphosis may occur in reference to the pa tient's own identity [3,4], Signer [5] has sug gested that beliefs about radical identity changes in regard to the patient's own identity be termed 'reverse' misidentification syn dromes thereby distinguishing them from those misidentification syndromes in which the misidentified objects are found in the patient's environment. Syndromes involving physical and psychological misidentification of the self may therefore be called the syn drome o f'reverse' intermetamorphosis [6],…”

Lycanthropy: New Evidence of Its Origin

“…The lycanthropy delusion of being transformed into an animal is often associated with a delusion of growing claws [5,6]. In the case of this patient, she never clearly expressed the belief of being transformed into an animal and never behaved like an animal, so the diagnostic criteria proposed by Keck et al [1] for the diagnosis of lycanthropy are not fulfilled.…”

Is it justifiable to assert that clinical lycanthropy may be correlated to porphyria cutanea tarda?

“…The werewolf usually turns back into a human at sunrise, with no recollection of their wolfish activities [6].…”