Clinical zoanthropy, or the delusional belief of becoming an animal, has a long and colourful history.
For example, the Book of Daniel in the Bible mentions King Nebuchadnezzar II who was cursed by God for his pride. As a result, he “was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen” for seven years until his sanity was eventually restored. The very word lycanthropy stems from the Greek myth of King Lycaon who was transformed into a wolf by the gods for his crimes.
Throughout the centuries, there have been numerous examples recorded, usually in the form of myths and legends which may have helped foster the belief in werewolves and shapeshifters around the world. Still, actual cases of clinical zoanthropy as reported in the medical and psychological literature tend to be much rarer. From 1850 to the present day, for example, there have been less than sixty case histories involving people believing themselves to be or acting like or behaving like, any kind of animal: whether it be a dog, lion, tiger, crocodile, snake, or bee.
This is what makes a new case history published in the Belgian Journal of Psychiatry (Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie), so memorable. Written by a team of Belgian psychiatrists at the Universitair Psychiatrisch Centrum in the Belgian city of Leuven, the case history described their patient, a 54-year-old woman who had been admitted to hospital with the bizarre belief that she was, well, a chicken.
The patient's brother had brought her to the hospital emergency ward after reporting that he found her in their garden showing bizarre behaviour, including flapping her arms and making strange crowing noises. She had no relevant medical history, no history of substance use, and aside from a family history of depression, showed no mental health issues except for being treated for grief following the death of a parent ten years earlier. Though she had been experiencing depression for several months prior to her episode, apparently brought on by problems at work, no real clues could be found about what was responsible for her strange condition.
To read more, check out my new Psychology Today blog post.
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