Clinical vampirism

Clinical vampirism or so called Renfield's syndrome is a rare mental disorder. This condition is characterized by obsesive and compulsive need for blood. People who suffer from this condition are primarily male, but a good and vivid example for behaviour typical for this disorder is Elizabeth Bathory.According to Noll, the condition starts with a key event in childhood that causes the experience of blood injury or the ingestion of blood to be exciting. After puberty, the excitement is experienced as sexual arousal. Throughout adolescence and adulthood, blood, its presence, and its consumption can also stimulate a sense of power and control. Noll explains that Renfield's syndrome begins with aoutovampirism and then progresses to the consumption of the blood of other creatures.
Most of the cases of Renfield's syndrome can be found in the criminal chronicles Today the vampires are very popular. We see them on the TV, we read about them in the big books and we admire them. This may be the reason why the vampire psychosis is expanding. Currently Renfield's syndrome is not listed like an individual disorder in the DSM4. That is because very few cases of the syndrome have been described, and the published reports that do exist refer to what has been proposed as Renfield's syndrome through the use of official psychiatric diagnostic categories such as schizophrenia or as a variety of paraphilia.