The Oddity of Renfield Syndrome

A little known and rare mental disorder, Renfield's Syndrome, is manifested in an obsession with drinking blood. The afflicted are pre-dominately male, and believe they will acquire power and life energy from the blood they ingest. This mental disorder is named after Dracula's assistant, Renfield, who consumed small animals and bugs to obtain their life energy. This illness typical forms during childhood, and progresses from ingesting one's own blood to ingesting the blood of others. Eventually it becomes a matter of sexual arousal.

This mental disorder is sometimes evident in crime scenes. One of the earliest recorded cases in modern times was the unsolved Vampire Murder in Stockholm, 1932, in which the victim had her skull crushed and her blood drunk by the assailant. Other famous cases include the strange case of John Brennan Crutchley, the Vampire Rapist, who would drain the blood of his victims and let them linger near the point of death while he plied his evil upon them.

Renfield Syndrome remains a very peculiar and little understood mental disorder. Nor is it very well known outside of the fringes of Mental Health.