Werewolves, Vampires and Cannibals

Lycanthropy: New Evidence of Its Origin

“…The prophyriac may also have been confused with vampires, with red eyes and teeth in some cases, and in the past may have been encouraged to drink blood to counteract anaemia [10]. However, these explanations do not help to understand the modern-day lycanthropy who is usually normal in appearance [2], and there is no evidence of any other metabolic diseases in all the reported cases including these 2 case reports.…”

“…The animal which is both common and feared is usually the subject of these beliefs: in SouthEast Asia and Africa the hyena, tiger, crocodile or shark and in Europe the wolf. These fears have been recorded in European literature since Ancient Greece [2]. The first case report can be found in the Bible.…”

Multiple Serial Lycanthropy

“…The phenomenon of lycanthropy, gener ally regarded as a delusion [ 1,3], raises some interesting psychopathological issues. Ly canthropy has a long history since at least classical times, but is uncommon in the present era.…”

“…The topic has been reviewed in its historical and literary context [1,2], Several individual case re ports have been published [3][4][5], and a retro spective series of 12 cases was compiled by Keck et al [6]. Like the phenomenon of hearing hallucinatory voices from animals ('the Dolittle syndrome' [7]), the experience of lycanthropy appears associated with se vere psychosis, but does not have diagnostic specificity or prognostic predictive power.…”

Monsters, myths and syndromes depicted on stamps

“…The Wolfman story (Fig. 4) was based on the werewolf legend, which is based on folklore from many cultures, rather than on a specific novel [10]. The term werewolf refers to a hybrid combination of man and wolf [11].…”