Autovampirism
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{{Infobox medical condition (new)
| name = Autovampirism
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| field = Psychiatry
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| symptoms = Suturing, opening of wounds; self-harm
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| causes = Usually after traumatic incident
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Auto-vampirism is a form of vampirism that refers to drinking one's own blood, typically as a form of sexual gratification.{{Cite book|title=Forensic and Medico-legal Aspects of Sexual Crimes and Unusual Sexual Practices|last=Aggrawal|first=Anil|date=2008|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9781420043082|location=Boca Raton, FL|pages=371}} As a mental disorder, this is also called as autohemophagia, which is derived from three Greek words: auto, which means "self"; hemos, for "blood"; and, phagos, meaning "to eat".{{Cite book|title=The 101 Most Unusual Diseases and Disorders|last=Kelly|first=Evelyn|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2016|isbn=9781610696753|location=Santa Barbara, CA|pages=107}} Although closely related to vampirism, the two differ in that vampirism is a sadistic act while auto-vampirism is on the side of masochism.{{Cite journal|last=Bourguignon|first=A|date=February 1977|title=[Status of vampirism and autovampirism]|journal=Annales médico-psychologiques|volume=1|issue=2|pages=181–96|issn=0003-4487|pmid=883741}} Along with drinking their own blood, most practitioners of auto-vampirism also engage in self-harm in order to obtain the blood.McCully, R. S. (1964). Vampirism: Historical perspective and underlying process in relation to a case of auto-vampirism. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 139, 440–451.
Background
Auto-vampirism is considered a pathology of vampiristic behavior or "clinical vampirism",{{Cite book|title=Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism|last=Laycock|first=Joseph|publisher=Praeger|year=2009|isbn=9780313364723|location=Wesport, CT|pages=24}} which also includes any violent or sexual act done to or in the presence of the body of a dead being, not drinking the blood of a living human. Clinical psychologist Richard Noll introduced this term, which was coined after the mental patient who assisted Dracula in Bram Stoker's novel. Auto-vampirism is typically the first stage of clinical vampirism, or more commonly known as Renfield's Syndrome. It is, however, not recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR 2000).{{Cite journal|last=Oppawasky|first=Jolene|date=2010-12-22|title=Vampirism: clinical vampirism--Renfield's syndrome|url=https://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA248333953&sid=googleScholar&asid=e239ae0a|journal=Annals of the American Psychotherapy Association|language=English|volume=13|issue=4|access-date=2018-12-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218054454/https://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=googlescholar&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA248333953&sid=googleScholar&asid=e239ae0a|archive-date=2018-12-18|url-status=live}}
Development
The habit of drinking one's own blood usually begins during childhood, most commonly as a result of a traumatic event that results in a person linking pleasure with violence and more specifically blood.{{Cite web|url=http://www.forensicpsychology.org/19_Drakulic%20ACFP%202018%20Clinical%20Vampirism.pdf|title=Vampirism|date=2018|website=Forensic Psychology|access-date=December 18, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181218054609/http://www.forensicpsychology.org/19_Drakulic%20ACFP%202018%20Clinical%20Vampirism.pdf|archive-date=December 18, 2018|url-status=live}} It develops by first scraping or cutting one's own skin to extract and ingest blood, later resulting in learning where and how to cut and open major veins and arteries for larger amounts of blood.{{Cite journal|last1=Olry|first1=Régis|last2=Haines|first2=Duane E.|date=October 2011|title=Renfield's Syndrome: A Psychiatric Illness Drawn from Bram Stoker'sDracula|journal=Journal of the History of the Neurosciences|volume=20|issue=4|pages=368–371|doi=10.1080/0964704x.2011.595655|pmid=22003862|s2cid=44505744 |issn=0964-704X}} Sometimes, they will also store their own blood for later consumption or just because they like to look at it. Eventually, auto-vampirism develops into clinical vampirism.{{Cite web|url=http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/vampires/7.html|title=Vampire Killers - murderers who were inspired by a lust for blood - The Crime library|date=2007-12-18|access-date=2018-12-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071218202138/http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/weird/vampires/7.html|archive-date=2007-12-18}} According to clinical psychologist Noll, this process includes three stages: autovampirism, zoophagia (the progressive paraphilic stage{{Cite book|title=Serial Murderers and Their Victims|last=Hickey|first=Eric W.|date=2016|publisher=Cengage Learning|isbn=9781305261693|location=Boston, MA|pages=380}} that involves eating of animals or drinking of animals' blood), and clinical or true vampirism.
As the child goes through puberty, they begin to link sexuality to the pleasure that is already derived from vampirism. There is also usually a sense that seeing or drinking their blood gives them power or increased health, as in general vampirism. At this point, it is considered fetishistic.
There are cases where vampirism and auto-vampirism are one of many symptoms of schizophrenia.{{Cite book|title=Vampires Today: The Truth about Modern Vampirism|last=Laycock|first=Joseph|date=2009|publisher=Praeger|isbn=9780313364723|location=Westport, CT|pages=24}} This was illustrated in the case of a 35- year old woman with schizophrenia who experienced severe depersonalization and auditory hallucinations that commanded her to drink her own blood. Auto-vampirism, for her, was part of a delusion about a purification process.{{Cite journal|last1=Jensen|first1=Hans Mørch|last2=Poulsen|first2=Henrik Day|date=January 2002|title=Auto-vampirism in schizophrenia|journal=Nordic Journal of Psychiatry|volume=56|issue=1|pages=47–48|doi=10.1080/08039480252803918|pmid=11869465|s2cid=39289025 |issn=0803-9488}}
Auto-vampirism can cause anemia, abdominal pain, nausea, and more. It is difficult to determine all the consequences of auto-vampirism due to the difficulty of finding people who drink their own blood.{{Cite journal|last=Halevy|first=A|date=October 1989|title=Auto-Vampirism - An Unusual Cause of Anaemia|journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume=82|issue=10|pages=630–631|doi=10.1177/014107688908201027|issn=0141-0768|pmid= 2810304|pmc=1292349}} It is noted that the pathologies that are associated with vampirism are exceedingly rare.
See also
References
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{{paraphilia}}
{{Cannibalism}}