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Journal of the History of the Neurosciences: Basic and Clinical Perspectives

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Renfield's Syndrome: A Psychiatric Illness Drawn from Bram Stoker's Dracula

Rgis Olry & Duane E. Haines
a a b

Dpartement de chimie-biologie, Universit du Qubec TroisRivires, Qubec, Canada

b

Department of Anatomy, The University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA Version of record first published: 17 Oct 2011.

To cite this article: Rgis Olry & Duane E. Haines (2011): Renfield's Syndrome: A Psychiatric Illness Drawn from Bram Stoker's Dracula , Journal of the History of the Neurosciences: Basic and Clinical Perspectives, 20:4, 368-371 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0964704X.2011.595655

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Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 20:368371, 2011 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0964-704X print / 1744-5213 online DOI: 10.1080/0964704X.2011.595655

NEUROwords Renelds Syndrome: A Psychiatric Illness Drawn from Bram Stokers Dracula
RGIS OLRY1 AND DUANE E. HAINES2
Dpartement de chimie-biologie, Universit du Qubec Trois-Rivires, Qubec, Canada 2 Department of Anatomy, The University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS, USA The myth of vampirism is in the best of health, witness the many lms (Karg, Spaite, & Sutherland, 2009; Ross, 1990), studies (Barber, 1988; Finn, 2010; Gaston, 2009; Ponnau, 1997; Pozzuoli, 2010; Stiles, Finger, & Bulevich, 2010; Stiles, Finger, & Petrain, 2010) and bestsellers devoted to the descendants of Bram Stokers 1897 Dracula. This never-ending success shows that the image [of vampire] is omnipotent, and this has been a reality since the most early times of history (Markale, 2010, p. 9). Indeed, as pointed out by Robert Ambelain (1977), some of King Davids Psalms already made an allusion to creatures we refer today to as vampires: et de viris sanguinum salva me. Quia ecce ceperunt animam meam [. . .] Convertentur ad vesperam: et famem patientur ut canes [. . .] et gladius in labiis eorum (and save me from these blood men. Because they took possession of my live [. . .] They will be back in the evening: and they will be starving like dogs [. . .] and they have a sword on their lips: Psalm 58: 3, 4, 7, 8; DAllioli, 1884). We must, however, point out the fact that these psalms are not always so explicit: We could nd some discrepancies between more ancient translations and comments (for example, see Mege, 1675). The etiology of Renelds syndrome as that of other mental disorders we described previously (Olry & Haines, 2002, 2006a, 2006b, 2007) remains unknown. However, its symptomatology obviously leads us to include it in psychiatrical and/or neurological diseases. But who is Reneld? Reneld is a background character of Bram Stokers 1897 Dracula. He is mentally ill, is conned and keeps up a telepathic correspondence with his master, Count Dracula, who has just left Transylvania to settle in the suburbs of London. Stoker introduces the personage of Reneld in three steps. Firstly, he makes the reader observe that a clinic of psychiatry is to be found close by Carfax estate, the house recently bought by Count Dracula: There are but few houses close at hand, one being a very large house only recently added to and formed into a private lunatic asylum (Stoker, 1897, p. 25). Secondly, he takes advantage of a letter from Lucy Westenra to Mina Murray to reveal the name of the psychiatrist: Dr. John Seward, the lunatic-asylum man (Stoker, 1897, p. 61). The name of Reneld, a patient Dr. Seward described in his diary, nally appears: R. M. Reneld, aetat 59.Sanguine temperament; great physical strength; morbidly excitable; periods of gloom, ending in some xed idea which I cannot make out. I presume that the sanguine temperament
Address correspondence to Rgis Olry, Dpartement de Chimie-Biologie, Universit du Qubec Trois-Rivires, CP 500, Trois-Rivires, Qubec, Canada G9A 5H7. E-mail: regis.olry@uqtr.ca
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itself and the disturbing inuence end in a mentally-accomplished nish; a possibly dangerous man, probably dangerous if unselsh (Stoker, 1897, p. 66). Over the following pages, Dr. Seward becomes more and more puzzled about his patient: His moods change so rapidly that I nd it difcult to keep touch of them, and as they always mean something more than his own well-being, they form a more than interesting study (Stoker, 1897, p. 292). Finally, the death of Reneld is ascribed to Dracula by Quincey Morris who saw a bat rise from Renelds window, and ap westward (Stoker, 1897, p. 311). In the 1980s, Herschel Prins developed the idea of vampirism as a clinical condition (Prins, 1985), and the term Renelds syndrome was coined in 1992 by the Philadelphia psychologist Richard Noll (1992) who gives its diagnostic: 1. 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, the excitement associated with blood is experienced as sexual arousal. 2. The progression of Renelds syndrome follows a typical course in many cases: Autovampirism is generally developed rst, 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 specically the drinking of their blood) may develop prior to autovampirism in some cases, but usually is next to develop. Persons with Renelds 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. 3. The compulsion to drink blood almost always has a strong sexual component associated with it. 4. Blood will sometimes take on an almost mystical signicance as a sexualized symbol of life or power, and, as such, an experience of well-being or empowerment will be reported by those with Renelds syndrome following such activities. 5. Persons with Renelds syndrome are primarily male. 6. The dening characteristic of Renelds syndrome is the blood-drinking compulsion. Other related activities such as necrophilia and necrophagia that do not have as their goal the drinking of blood are not to be considered aspects of this disorder.

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True case reports of Renelds syndrome seem to be of the utmost rarity (Benezech et al., 1981; Bergh & Kelly, 1964; Bourguignon, 1977; Halevy et al., 1989; Hemphill & Zabow, 1983; Jaffe & Di Cataldo, 1994; Jensen & Poulsen, 2002; McCully, 1964) but, as concluded by Richard L. vanden Bergh and John F. Kelly, The syndrome and fantasies of vampirism are more frequent and important than their relative absence in the literature would suggest (Bergh & Kelly, 1964, p. 547). Twentieth-century criminology has applied the metaphor of vampirism to some serial killers, on the basis of their alleged dealings with animal or human blood: Fritz Haarman, the Hannover Vampire (born in 1879, beheaded on April 15, 1925); Peter Krten, the Dsseldorf Vampire (born in 1883, beheaded on July 2, 1931); John George Haigh, the London Vampire (born in 1909, hanged on August 10, 1949); and Richard Trenton Chase, the Sacramento Vampire (born in 1950, suicide on December 26, 1980). Who, among them, was really affected by Renelds syndrome? Neither Fritz Haarman who was in fact necrophagous and a salesman of human esh (Monestier, 2000) nor John George Haigh, who claimed vampirism was nothing more than a ruse to establish a defense of insanity, t the denition (Lane, 1995). Peter Krten might be a case of Renelds syndrome: He indeed revealed that in some instances he drank the blood of his victims (Everitt, 1993). But it is beyond question that Richard Trenton Chase long fullled the diagnosis criteria of Renelds syndrome (Bourgoin, 1993), as conrmed by the forensic psychiatrist Ronald Markman who was in charge of his psychiatric experts report: While in prison, he repeatedly asked for fresh blood, human or otherwise, to drink for sustenance (Markman & Bosco, 1993, p. 191). Contemporary popularization of the types of behavior exemplied by Reneld, such as programs/movies portraying vampires or werewolves, may actually serve a positive scientic purpose. While they do not get to the root of the clinical condition, and rarely or never offer a treatment, the observer is treated to a vivid impression (and hopefully some degree of understanding) of the personal and societal torment that individuals with actual clinical conditions of similar types actually experience. Reneld would probably feel somewhat vindicated.

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