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According to the legend of
the vampire, it is really only after a vampire victim's first feeding, the
first tasting of blood, that individuals cross over the line and become
vampires. They then must forever serve the mad craving for blood that
this experience initiates. This crossing over the line, the breach of
a cultural taboo against the drinking of blood, is what marks the beginning
of the disease of vampirism, both in legend and in fact. For this
reason, the modern phenomenon called "clinical vampirism" is perhaps best
understood in terms of the primitive theory of a disease caused by the
violation of a taboo (see the introduction to this book). The
excitement experienced by engaging in a forbidden act only reinforces the
behavior and increases the likelihood that it will be repeated again and
again.
Herschel Prins (1984), a
British authority on clinical vampirism whose work has been invaluable in
defining the syndrome, points out that in the psychiatric literature the
word "vampirism" has been used to cover a spectrum of phenomena. Such
rare activities as necrophagia (eating the flesh of the human dead),
necrophilia (sexual excitement and contract with corpses), cannibalism, and
other sequelae of a lustmord (lust-murder) such as necrosadism (the
abuse of corpses) have been included under this label since the 19th century
in addition to the traditional meaning of drinking the blood of others
(vampirism) and one's own blood (autovampirism). All of these
activities are discussed together in a paper on "unusual sexual syndromes"
by Rebal, Faguet, and Woods (1982).
It is quite conceivable that
Bram Stoker came into contact with the 1892 English translation of
Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) by the famous German neurologist and
psychiatrist Richard van Krafft-Ebing (1840-1902), which contains many vivid
case histories of lust-murders involving necrophagia, necrophilia, blood
drinking, and the sexual excitement that some individuals can only
experience when they see fresh blood flowing, or imagine it to be doing so,
from their sexual partners. The vampires in Stoker's book perform
gruesome lust-murders on men, women, and even on children that are similar
in tone to the graphic examples provided in Krafft-Ebing's famous text.
The 19th century expert on sexual pathology defines "lust-murder" as "lust
potentiated as cruelty, murderous lust extending to anthropophagy"
(Krafft-Ebing, 1892, p. 62). The most vampire-like of the lust-murders
cited by Krafft-Ebing is the often-cited story of a 19-year-old vinedresser
by the name of Leger:
Case 19....From youth
moody, silent, shy of people. He starts out in search of a
situation. He wanders about eight days in the forest, there catches
a girl twelve years old, violates her, mutilates her genitals, tears out
her heart, eats of it, drinks the blood, and buries the remains.
(Krafft-Ebing, 1892, pp. 63-64)
The article by Prins in this
collection includes his classification schema for the varying degrees of
what he considers to be the best definition of vampirism. As he
himself notes, it is based on the work of Bourguignon (1977; 1983).
The model of clinical vampirism proposed here (and based on a reading of
many of the case histories below) defines the syndrome according to a
discernible course that fits all the case histories in one or more of its
aspects. It is also proposed that the sexual blood-fetish syndrome
defined here as clinical vampirism should bear a new eponymous label in
future psychiatric treatments and be renamed Renfield's syndrome in honor of
the character in Bram Stoker's Dracula who bore many of the classic
signs and symptoms of the disorder.
The following are the
proposed characteristics of Renfield's syndrome:
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A pivotal event often leads
to the development of vampirism (blood drinking). This usually
occurs in childhood, and the experience of bleeding or the taste of blood
is found to be "exciting." After puberty, this excitement associated
with blood is experienced as sexual arousal.
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The progression of
Renfield's syndrome follows a typical course in many cases:
Autovampirism
is generally developed first, usually in childhood, by initially
self-inducing scrapes or cuts in the skin to produce blood, which is then
ingested, to later learning how to open major blood vessels (veins,
arteries) in order to drink a steady stream of warm blood more directly.
The blood may then be ingested at the time of the opening, or may be saved
in jars or other containers for later imbibing or for other reasons.
Masturbation often accompanies autovampiristic practices.
Zoophagia
(literally the eating of living creatures, but more specifically the
drinking of their blood) may develop prior to autovampirism in some cases,
but usually is the next to develop. Persons with Renfield's syndrome
may themselves catch and eat or drink the blood of living creatures such
as insects, cats, dogs, or birds. The blood of other species may be
obtained at places such as slaughter houses and then ingested.
Sexual activity may or may not accompany these functions.
Vampirism
in its true form is the next stage to develop - procuring and drinking the
blood of living human beings. This may be done by stealing blood
from hospitals, laboratories, and so forth, or by attempting to drink the
blood directly from others. Usually this involves some sort of
consensual sexual activity, but in lust-murder type cases and in other
nonlethal violent crimes, the sexual activity and vampirism may not be
consensual.
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The compulsion to drink
blood almost always has a strong sexual component associated with it.
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Blood will sometimes take
on an almost mystical significance as a sexualized symbol of life or
power, and, as such, an experience of well-being or empowerment will be
reported by those with Renfield's syndrome following such activities.
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Persons with Renfield's
syndrome are primarily male.
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The defining
characteristics of Renfield's syndrome is the blood-drinking compulsion.
Other related activities such as necrophilia and necrophagia that do not
have as their goal drinking of blood are not to be considered aspects of
this disorder.
Taken Verbatim From:
"Vampires, Werewolves, & Demons. Twentieth
Century Reports in the Psychiatric Literature." Richard Noll.
Brunner/Mazel Publishing, Inc. New York, New York. ©1992.
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