192 - Lycanthropy

【リカントロピー、rikantoropii】

Also known as "wolf possession", it generally refers to the phenomenon of believing oneself to be a wolf or other beast and behaving accordingly.

Such cases have existed since ancient times, and it is said that Nebuchadnezzar II, the king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire known for performing the Israelite Babylonian Captivity in the 6th century B.C., was possessed by the mind of a beast and spent seven years living as a beastman.

It is also noted that in 1753 in France, one man was executed as a "werewolf" for the killings of many women and girls as well as for eating their bodies, and similarly, in 1798 in France, a rural man was captured for biting a boy to death.

More recently, a 49-year-old woman who thought she was a wolf complained that when she looked in the mirror she saw her reflection appearing as a wolf, eventually, she shed her clothes and behaved abnormally, as if a beast.

In modern psychiatry, however, lycanthropy is defined as a phenomenon in which a person becomes paranoid and delusional that they might turn into a beast, rather than actually having the violent tendencies of a beast, thus making these symptoms a complex syndrome caused by multiple mental pathologies, possibly including multiple personality disorder.

In recent years, it has also been suggested that some of the past cases may have been caused by rabies.

The rabies virus affects the limbic system of the brain within about two weeks of infection, causing the infected person to develop an aggressive personality. In addition, the virus affects the hypothalamus, which promotes insomnia, leading the infected person to wander around late at night and to show hypersensitivity to garlic, light, and other stimuli.

Their behavior closely resembles that of werewolves and other legendary creatures, which may have led people to believe that they had become possessed by beasts.

However, regardless of the definition, there have been numerous accounts since ancient times of people behaving like animals and attacking people and livestock, be it due to rabies or multiple personality disorder, and there is no doubt that this phenomenon, like fox possession in Japan, has existed in many regions since time immemorial.