LACANTHROPY

By: Shyan Chapman 08/19/04

Lacanthropy is a mental disorder in which the sufferer believes that they are a wolf or some other beast.

Lacanthropy has been linked by modern medical doctors to many different types of disorders (some I personally don’t agree with but I will list them all anyway) such as…

• Bipolar Disorder or Manic-Depressive Psychosis and Psychomotor Epilepsy or Temporal Lobe Epilepsy-meaning some kind of motor action directly proceeding from mental activity like a seizure.

• Dissociate-type Hysterical Personality- meaning something similar to split personality disorder. Dramatic and intensely expressed emotional behavior.

• Organic Brain Disorder with Psychosis- meaning any acute or chronic mental dysfunction (as delirium or senile dementia) resulting chiefly from physical changes in brain structure.

• Psychotic Depressive Reaction- a mental disorder that causes a lost contact with reality, also a mood disorder.

• Schizophrenia or Dementia Praecox- meaning one has a loss of contact with the environment and has a noticeable deterioration in the level of function in everyday life.

Hallucinogenic plants and fungus-infected grains/foods have been the cause of many outbreaks of Lacanthropy over the centuries, like Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade) and a fungus called Ergot, which is similar to LSD and very hallucinogenic.

Some sources say some cases of Lacanthropy can be caused by Rabies. Rabies can be carried by dogs and wolves and if bitten your body will hurt and go through changes which can explain the transformation one thinks they are going through, thus believing they are turning into a werewolf, and it causes one to hallucinate and even attack and bite other people like that of a frightened wolf. Rabies causes increased salivation and abnormal behavior making one appear like an animal. The infected person also becomes Hydrophobic, which is a morbid fear of water. After getting Rabies a person would eventually get paralysis and die within 5 days if it is untreated.