A Brief History of Clinical Lycanthropy

“…he told his doctors that he had cloven feet and sharp fangs, and that his body was covered in long hair.”

The history behind clinical lycanthropy is fascinating; patients claiming to be turning into an animal, or having had turned into a werewolf, or other forms of animagi. The people that analyze these patients have gone through an evolutionary transformation of their own; psychiatry has its own history.

At one point, these afflictions were thought to be caused by demons, evil spirits; the minions of Satan either in abstract or the mystical metaphysical variety. And then we moved on to other ineffective theories that made no sense. Clinical lycanthropy is now treated with drugs, but the funny thing is… it’s still unknown as to what exactly causes the disorder.

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