Hematodipsia: The Dark Side of Vampires

Dwight Frye as Renfield in 1931's Dracula

Marilyn Manson recently posted a word which revives the entire concept of vampirism: Hematodipsia.

Although this term is considered somewhat of a pseudoscience it is actually referring to a mental disease (vampirism) in which an individual is aroused by watching, drinking or even ingesting blood.

The whole concept has a lot to do to with the history and legend of vampires. Some say it's just a myth and has been elevated through the years to a romantic, tragic level, ever since the appearance of novels such as Bram Stoker's Dracula, and recently with Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer.

However, taking away the fangs and the fancy costumes hematodipsia focuses more on a parafilia (or fetichism) which happens after a sexual act by sucking or licking blood of their 'victims'.

It has also been known in psychiatric terms as "The Renfield Syndrome" in honor of one of the servants of Vlad in the Dracula novel, which was a mental patient who ingested flies, spiders in order to absorb their vitality.

Several stages have been identified of how this disorder develops:

1. In childhood: It can be any random experience in which the individual sees or comes close to blood, whether it's his own or somebody else's.

2. Self-vamipirism: where one becomes excited by the vision or the taste of its own blood.

3. Zoofagia: where they taste the blood of animals, and specially around house pets.

4. Clinical vampirism: The most advanced stage of Reinfeld Syndrome in which the victim bites or hurts victims for pleasure and drinking their blood to get aroused due that the substance becomes very much like a drug.

Real-Life Vampires:

- Vlad Draculea

- Countess Elizabeth Bathory

- Gilles de Rais

- Peter Kurten

- Fritz Haarmann

- Bela Kisz

- Allan Menzies (killer which was said was heavily influenced by the movie "Queen of the Damned", from the Anne Rice novels)

Now, we've seen this used as an element several times in Manson's work such as "Eat Me, Drink Me". Is this idea coming back for his next album or is it just a pretty thought?

(source: Wikipedia)