A medical journal reports on a case of a man who thought his mother had turned into a wolf. It sounds like it's perhaps the first case of lycanthropy by proxy.
(I'm hoping I'm using "proxy" correctly.)
According to Mindhacks.com, "Lycanthropy is the name given to the mythical condition that causes someone to turn into a werewolf. However, it's also the name given to the psychiatric syndrome where someone becomes psychotic and believes they have transformed or are transforming into another animal."
According to the journal, the man:
…stated that he was captured by devil and sometimes his thoughts orbody were controlled by its power. Sometimes he had auditoryhallucinations and heard the sound of drumming.
He saidthat he had drooling from his mouth for no apparent reason. He alsoclaimed that this feeling caused some other changes in him, forexample, he had previously had doubts about his ability to commandanimals and had now seen cats obey his commands.
So why do people get this condition?
Zoologicalproblems aside, the question remains as to why people experiencelycanthropy at all. Psychosis is certainly a strange fish, and thebizarre and uncanny are not unusual in this state. Nevertheless, simplydefining it as just 'another type of weird' does not get us any furtheralong the way to explaining its formation and development.
Oneimportant factor may be differences or changes in parts of the brainknown to be involved in representing body shape. A brain scanning studyof two people with lycanthropy showed that these areas display unusualactivation, suggesting that when people report their bodies arechanging shape, they may be genuinely perceiving those feelings.
So would basic anti-psychotic drugs treat this condition effectively?
Wolf in sheep's clothing [Mindhacks.com] and Howling at the Moon: Modern-day Lycanthropy [Kuro5hin]
