15 Symptoms Of Renfield Syndrome, A Real-Life Vampirism Condition

Renfield Syndrome begins at a young age, and if you had an accident as a child where you were cut deeply or were made to swallow a lot of blood for some reason, then you're more than likely to have a pathological interest in the sweet nectar of life. It isn't out of the ordinary for a childhood trauma to cause a psychological issue, but it's kind of weird that drinking blood could cause you to want to drink more blood. 

According to psychologist Richard Noll, who cheekily came up with the whole Renfield thing, one of the three stages of Renfield syndrome becoming a full-fledged mental illness is sexual arousal at the sight of blood. This tends to occur when someone enters puberty, and if you or someone you know is around blood then, you should probably get them to the nearest 19th-century sanitarium post haste. 

After someone with Renfield has passed "being aroused by blood," the next step on their blood-soaked journey is to drink some blood, of course. As the person's autovampirism progresses, they begin to self-inflict wounds in order to drink their own blood. According to Richard Noll, the blood letting has "compulsive components." Do you think it's better to drink your own blood or someone else's? 

So here's the thing with Renfield syndrome: not only is it incredibly rare in the general population, but it's also pretty much never occurs in women (except for in one very notable account). There's no known reason for why men gravitate towards this proclivity, only that it "has a mystical quality, as if it can enhance their lives." Many of the people who have claimed to have a version of Renfield Syndrome seem to believe that the blood cures them of something, or that it replenishes them in some way, although that's likely a sign of another mental illness. 

Many people that suffer from Renfield syndrome or another kind of vampirism never graduate to assaulting someone so they can steal their blood. But that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. In the mid-1880s, German neurologist Richard von Krafft-Ebing discussed two acts of horrific violence that relate to wannabe vampires drinking blood. One case involved a young vinedresser (someone who prunes vines) murdering a 12-year-old girl before drinking her blood; and on the lighter end of the spectrum, a man who allowed his wife to slice his arm open so she could suck on it before sex. 

Many people who have a version of Renfield syndrome are actually schizophrenic, and they believe that the blood that they're in search of will give them something that they so badly need. For instance, Richard Chase, the Vampire of Sacramento, believed that he didn't have enough blood in his body and that he had to drink as much of the stuff as possible in order to keep his body properly lubricated. Dr. Philip Jaffé, a psychologist at the University of Geneva, believes "the ingestion of blood and/or body parts may be a way for the schizophrenic to literally replenish themselves."