In 1852 , a man was allow to the Asile d’Aliénés de Maréville , an asylum in France , arrogate that his consistence had hold out through a unusual transformation . Though he appeared to be physically normal , he distinguish his doctors that he had adhere human foot and crisp Fang , and that his physical structure was cover in long hair . He was convert that he had turned into a wolf , and asked the doctors to put him on a diet of naked as a jaybird meat . The staff bind him , but he decline to eat what he ’d been given because it was n’t “ rotten enough . ” He later ask the doctors to end his anguish by taking him into the forest and shooting him . They did not honour that postulation , and the homo finally died in the insane asylum .
A few years ago , another human being come to Dutch head-shrinker Jan Dirk Blom with a similar problem . He complained of increased hair growing on the arm ( as visually perceived by him , not by others ) , a “ solidifying ” of his jaw and facial muscularity and the growth of fangs that caused lowly injury on the corners of his mouth — none of which Blom could see . The patient had research the Internet for info about his term before go to the hospital and reported his self - diagnosis to Blom . While it was a far - fetched estimate , he would n’t accept any other account . He was a lycanthrope , or werewolf .
Blom ’s patient role , the Frenchman with the bisulcate feet , and other self - pretend lycanthropes that have made their direction into the medical literature are n’t like Larry Talbot , Scott “ Teen Wolf ” Howard , or other loup-garou from shuddery movies and folklore . These guy wire did n’t really turn into beasts when the full moon come up up , and in most grammatical case their doctors could n’t comprehend any of the physical changes they complained about . Rather , they sufferedclinical lycanthropyorlycomania , a rare psychiatric upset strike out by hallucinations and delusions that one can transform into a wolf .
After treat his patient , Blom was funny about how often the condition had been document and how it had been treated in the past tense , so heduginto the scientific lit . Between 1850 and 2012 , he found just 52 newspaper publisher and 56 original character description on “ delusional metamorphosis into an animal , ” only 15 of which involve clinical lycanthropy ( the rest of the fauna launch the gamut from cows and rhinos to bees , birds , and gerbille ) .
The earliest report instance of clinical lycanthropy Blom could find was the Frenchman in 1852 . Before that , he says , lycanthropy was “ conceptualized as an actual conversion of humankind into wolf and frailty versa , linked with such wide - range themes as lunar influence , witchery and demonology . ” Even in time when metaphysical and supernatural explanations prevailed , though , Blom ’s search turn up a few “ explanations of a more rational nature . ” As early as the 2d century , he enjoin , the Greek physician Galen and Marcellus of Side come out to have “ considered lycanthropy a disease rather than a manifestation of evil possession . ” Later , in the Early Middle Ages , aesculapian curative for lycanthropy — including “ dietary measures , complex galenical drug , hot bathing tub , catharsis , puking , and bloodletting to the point of fainting”—were prescribed by Greek and knotty doc who variously classify it as a type of melancholia or manic disorder , or attributed it to epilepsy , an imbalance of thehumorsor drug use . And although he was late to the party by a few hundred class , the sixteenth hundred Dutch physician Johannes Wier came to the same close as the Greeks and “ has been extol for being the first to designate lycanthropy as a natural rather than a supernatural affliction . ”
These medical explanations did n’t get on right on away , and for a long sentence , Blom says , “ isolated example of proto - scientific thought ” existed alongside the “ traditional , metaphysical ” interpretations of lycanthropy , even after the scientific gyration . aesculapian diagnoses for supposed werewolves were n’t always the product of scientific abstract thought , either . In 17th - century England , for example , Blom says that lycanthropes were “ broadly speaking considered dupe of delusion due to excessive sombre — not because English doctors were so far ahead of their Continental colleagues at the time , but rather because woman chaser were then already extinct in their res publica , and the loup-garou theme had been supplanted by like myths involving the cat and rabbit . ”
By the 19th century , supernatural explanation had been throw away aside and westerly medico generally considered clinical lycanthropy a delusional belief best deal with pharmaceuticals . Even today , though , the inherent cause of the condition is n’t well understood and example are n’t very well document . And because , as Blom says , it usually occur along with other symptoms that point doctors to “ more schematic diagnoses such as schizophrenic disorder , bipolar disorder and so on , ” clinical lycanthropy may be underreported , with MD not yell wolf as often as they should .
