Clinical lycanthropy

Not to be confused with Werewolf syndrome or Otherkin.
Clinical lycanthropy
Other namesZoanthropy
SpecialtyPsychiatry, Clinical Psychology

Clinical lycanthropy is a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is a non-human animal.[1] Its name is associated with the mythical condition of lycanthropy, a supernatural affliction in which humans are said to physically shapeshift into wolves.[2] The term is used by researchers mostly in the broader sense of transformation into animals in general, that, strictly speaking, is described as zoanthropy.[3]

  1. ^ Garlipp P, Gödecke-Koch T, Dietrich DE, Haltenhof H (January 2004). "Lycanthropy--psychopathological and psychodynamical aspects". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 109 (1): 19–22. doi:10.1046/j.1600-0447.2003.00243.x. PMID 14674954. S2CID 41324350.
  2. ^ Degroot, J.J.M. (2003). Religious System of China. Kessinger Publishing. p. 484.
  3. ^ Blom 2014, p. 96.