The Truth Behind Zombies, Vampires, Ghouls

Historical And Psychological Case Files For Five Halloween Characters

(WebMD) 

Developmentally, he says, the vampire has a "glitch" in the oral sucking stage of development. "It's not accurate to say they are fixated," he says, "because if they are really fixated that would be the roots of narcissism."

"Dracula was a narcissist, but not all [vampires] are," says Lapin.

"Vampires may have a psychological need to control others," says Barbara Almond, MD, a Palo Alto, Calif., psychiatrist and psychoanalyst at the San Francisco Center for Psychoanalysis. She has published on the topic of Bram Stoker's Dracula and its psychoanalytic explanation.

Vampirism, she says, could represent a fantasy. "The fantasy would be taking over and controlling others by bleeding them."

The victim and vampire, she tells WebMD, can become pathologically dependent on each other. The victim may also become a vampire, and then they will never leave each other.

Krippner sees yet another possibility for a vampire's behavior. "Vampires may be anemic," he says. Going after another's blood, he says, "might be a form of self-medication."

If he had to pick a psychiatric diagnosis for vampires, he says, "I would say they were suffering from delusional schizophrenia." Vampires might have believed they could live a long time if they drank human blood, Krippner says.

Halloween Character Case File No. 5: Werewolves

Werewolves, talked about and reported on since ancient Greek times, may have a rare psychiatric disorder called lycanthropy, in which one has the delusion he or she is being transformed into a wolf.

The lycanthropy can be due to a psychosis or hysteria, what most of us call madness, Lapin says. It's not linked with depression, he says.

Werewolves, Lapin says, also "get a sexual thrill, conscious or unconscious, from murdering. They want to dominate and control through terror that evokes submission, and they want to humiliate and degrade."

Believing he is turning into a wolf by imagining the hair growth is the werewolf's way to disassociate, Lapin says. "It's simply a way to stay unconscious of what they are doing."

The Joy of Being Creeped Out on Halloween

If your motto is the scarier the costume, the better, chances are you like the creepiness of it all.
And some say that's just fine -- at least for while. "Halloween," Krippner says, "is one of the few occasions where it is OK to flirt with the dark side of life."

[jennmarie620]

Such a shame that this article could have provided some much needed medical and scientific data to back up claims of these "monsters" throughout history - and yet it failed to do so. As a journalist, I am ashamed of this piece.

Hypertrichosis, a medical condition in which the body is covered by excessive hairiness, is probably what lead to original claims of "werewolves" over the centuries. Because these people would have cast out of society or severely ostracized, it would be logical to think that some of them would form some variances of insanity and kill those who harmed them psychologically or physically.

So to, "vampires" may just be a medieval explanation to people with the medical condition "porphyria."

This would have been the time and place to bring to light some rare medical conditions that would explain the stories and myths. It''s apalling that WebMD did the public such a disservice here.

[brianbwb-2009]

Stoker''s Dracula story contained a parody to the biblical admonition to Adam not to eat of the "tree of life", the resemblance of the circulatory system to the branches of a tree ("the blood is the life") and eternal life (They have eaten of the fruit of the tree, and now their eyes are opened, now therefore, before they become like us and live forever...")

He took the name from the Romanian king hero Vlad Tepes, who aided in repelling the Turkish invasion, committing the grossest atrocities upon them to instill fear in those that continued the fight. He frequently impaled them on spears, from the *** to the mouth, ripped out their hearts, and claimed to drink their blood, thus earning the name "Vlad the Impaler" and "Vlad Drakul" (Dragon).

It was basically a dark joke on how misinterpretation of religion leads to evil.

Cheney never got the joke.

[jerr11]

"While some say vampires have no heart, that''s not true, says Lapin, who self-published a book,"


I agree, there''s ample evidence to suggest that vampires do have a heart.

Just look at ******** Cheney. He''s got a heart, even a pace maker to boot.