Psychological Explanations For Real Vampirism

There are people who call themselves vampires; they are real people who drink real blood. There is an entire vampire subculture which involves those who drink blood and those who donate blood to these self-proclaimed “vampires.” These vampires claim that they have no control of their cravings, that their bodies need the blood they drink. Research has shown that their bodies, in truth, do not physically require the consummation of blood. There is no science that confirms what these real vampires claim. Therefore, logic says, that the issue of blood drinking is in their heads.

I’m not a psychologist, therefore I cannot give you a vast and detailed psychological explanation behind real vampirism. I can however give you a brief summary of the theories doctors in the field have already devised. Blood drinking is something psychologists have studied in great depth and below are two of the major theories behind the condition – the Freudian theory and the Jungian theory.

Freudian Theory
In Freud’s world, vampires are surrounded in images of repressed sexual longings and fears. According to Freudians, the vampire myth is linked to incestuous feelings of guilt and to infantile oral fixations. Essentially, Freud’s theory is focused mostly on the erotic side of things. Your sexual desires are what cause your behavior. The German doctor Richard von Krafft-Ebing, who inspired Freud, also believed that bloodthirsty acts were sexual. Some even believe that this doctor influenced Bram Stoker, hence the sexuality and bloodlust in Dracula.

Jungian Theory
It’s not about sex to the Jungians. According to Jung, vampirism is a symbolic expression of our primal instincts.

I will leave it at the basics. As I said, it’s much too difficult to cover every inch of their theories.

But what are your thoughts on these theories? Any psychologists here who want to add something?

– Moonlight

By Moonlight

Moonlight (aka Amanda) loves to write about, read about and learn about everything pertaining to vampires. You will most likely find her huddled over a book of vampire folklore with coffee in hand. Touch her coffee and she may bite you (and not in the fun way).

30 comments

  1. Unfortunately Humans are primal apes compared to Vampires which are actually higher being; they are not animals like humans they are they are actually Spirits that can possess people if you do your research you will see that so has nothing to do with that unless of course your an atheist (like the world just came out of a magical big bang and that there best theory lol). Damn doctors like to put a label on everything and make it all about sex (what a pervert lol) or our lack of there lack of willingness to look outside the box.

    1. If there is not a logical and scientific explanation – then I am not buying it. Vampires do not exist.

      1. Many so called logical and so called scientific explanations exist for many things, and some of them are just as bs as they were before some one proved them wrong or even right, or are you stubborn enough to say the world is flat. the possibility of more is still out there if you were objective, I exist but do you?
        D, ,

  2. Its interesting cause Science hasn’t explained a lot of stuff still and evolution as well as even gravity is still just theory’s. It took them long enough to figure out allot of stuff and so many mystery’s will never get answered by these scientist such as why people are healed w/o doctors and simply by faith? Some things science will never explain. That is why science verses faith and the supernatural are separate things and science will never be able to or have to ability to explain them…

    1. I suggest going back to school. Evolution has been thoroughly proven, as in 100% proven to be true. Evolution isn’t a myth or theory anymore. There’s DNA and loads of scientific data to back it up. Gravity is also SO not a theory. Both are true, so those were terrible examples. The scientific fact of the matter is that no person needs to drink blood to survive. No one. It’s a mental issue, not a physical one. To deny science and logic shows naivety.

          1. Did you not read the other one? its still a theory. I do not need your approval nor your labeling Doctors or science Its called there are still holes in your theory that have not been proven and I still fallow the sciences BS and still get cured by simple herbs over your doctors nasty chemicals with its harmful side effects and pollutants. I would be better off eating poison Ivy but I am not that stupid unlike so many of there victims

          2. Great point! Further to that, I’ll believe they exist as soon as someone shows me one. Transformation has to occur too, not just a statement. In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy the fantasy of immortality. ;)

      1. whose been lying to you. since when has the theory of evolution ever surpassed just that. because you want to believe in it? so you Believe in spontaneous generation ?
        your teacher is showing his bias, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UXclhjZods

        hog wash. i remember when you were a kid, when we had the laws of gravity, and now i hear they are no longer laws, and that Pluto is no longer a planet. or the 9th planet. and one day science may find out why vampires are. it has been something recorded in history though it is myth and legend it has been here since the beginning of written language.

        Richard von Krafft-Ebing also had in list homosexuality, and oninism or masturbation as mental illness.

        you are just too gullible.
        D, ,

        1. I’m not gullible, it’s the people who believe in real vampire who are. You’re just offended and lashing out.

          1. You mean like those who masturbate, fetishists, or homosexuals lashing out cause they are also considered mental illnesses even though you science can explain them in its own way they are still called mental illnesses according to certain psychiatrists…

          2. … none of those things are considered “mental illness.” At least not where I am from.

        2. It used to be considered one, things change so pretty soon I see free thinkers to be the next on the list – if it wasn’t for lawyers and liberals we would all be mentally ill if we didn’t fall in line…

      2. Interjecting to comment on a pet peeve of mine: Science is not used (or rather, is not really adept, by its design) to prove things to an absolute, 100% truth. Not even scientific theories designated as Laws (which evolution isn’t quite there, but is relatively close) are 100% proven truth, in all honesty. However, certain scientific ‘facts’ are advantageous for scientists in X field or for general people to understand them as proven facts/truths, rather than getting into the technical details about scientific theories and the supporting or rejecting of a given hypothesis by evidence and data.

        But it’s inaccurate to take that convenient simplification of science and state that, for example in this case, evolution, is actually a “100% proven truth” (even though it isn’t even designated as a Law [yet]) as a rebuttal about evolution’s validity and being “just a theory” (which I hate that phrase because the people saying it usually don’t even understand what it means for something to be a Scientific Theory, as evolution is).

        Aside from that, **facepalm** to an argument about the validity and reality of evolution being brought here on this page =l.

  3. Clearly there are two kinds of people in what could be called the vampire fandom/community: 1) fans of fictional entertainment and folklore concerning vampires, 2) ‘real vampires’ and admirers. Count me firmly among the first group. And I’m an atheist, even though one could be a theist and be in either group.

    (Back in the 80s there were people who drank small amounts of their girlfriend/boyfriend’s blood, but they never claimed to actually need it nor to be vampires.)

    The same kind of division occurs in the community interested in werewolves/shapeshifters, witchcraft, mythology, demonology, and theology.

  4. There is undoubtedly more than just the Freudian (phallic) and Jungian (not-always-phallic) theories available for any psychological analysis of anything. Furthermore, no two members of any community — vampire, otherkin, pagan, religious, etc. — will seek it out for exactly the same reason, and I doubt would fall into either Freudian or Jungian buckets.

    There has been a lot of recent research (one could debate their scientific focus) like Joseph Laycock’s book VAMPIRES TODAY and the Vampirism & Energy Work Research Study that Merticus Stevens leads. Yet not only are neither of these are mentioned, Moonlight, you don’t say what your basis of two theories are.

    Creationism vs. evolution — let’s not degrade into that level of vitriol. I understand the desire to compare to that, I just hope we can all be better than that.

  5. For the record, I’m an atheist/skeptic and I am not a “real vampire”, or any otherkin. I have friends in the community, however, and I can attest that just like “sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”, blood does not always equate to sex, power, or any other fetish.

    I do however have a personal story that I use to talk to people about their cravings. About a dozen years ago or so I became anemic and began craving ice, of all things. My doctor told me that although they had a name for this — Pica syndrome — and that it was related to my anemia, they could not explain it. Other types of pica syndrome such as craving and eating dirt could be at least be understood as dirt contains iron which one lacks when anemic. But ice? I wasn’t thirsty or dehydrated, I was only anemic.Once I had a regimen of iron pills and was past my anemia those cravings passed.

    My point is, science/medicine can’t explain why I craved ice specifically. Doctors merely noted the craving and gave it a name. “Real vampires” are often times not anemic, but that should not rule out the craving for blood just because anemia is dismissed. This also doesn’t necessarily mean their “need” can be psychoanalyzed away either.

    1. If both communities will forgive me, I think a good comparison to the vampire community is the transgender community.

      There is a distinction between transvestitism (cross-dressing/drag), transsexualism (identifying as the opposite sex), fetishists (aroused by drag), and homosexuality (attraction to the same sex). For example, there are those who don’t identify with the opposite sex or believe they have the wrong gender but still like to dress in clothes traditionally worn by the opposite sex, nor do they feel sexually aroused by this.

      Even in the drag/transvestite community, there are those who dress up casually, professionally, or even for entertainment.

      So to me the tricky ones to “define” are transsexuals. Sure there’s a term, and a psychological diagnosis, but there are countless reasons for this and they are not rigidly defined or even obvious as to why a person born with one form of genatalia feels different. They just do. Some go so far as to seek out gender reassignment surgery and hormone treatments.

      1. Though I get your general argument here I think it’s usually best to avoid making direct comparisons like this. As someone that has experienced both “vampirism” in the loosest sense of the word as well as gender variance I would have to say that I have not found the experiences especially comparable and think it is probably best to explain both experiences without using the language of the other.

        I am also uncomfortable with the idea that the vampire archetype is somehow central to all forms of “vampirism” in the inclusive sense that we generally characterize it, if that makes sense.

  6. Please cite the research studies which have been done on real vampires, proving that they have no medical basis for their needs. (You should have them on hand, since you mention them in your article).

    1. Five days later, and still no research cited! It’s almost as though the research DOESN’T ACTUALLY EXIST! Why, people might think you pulled it out of your rear.

      Logic fail: Lack of evidence does not equal evidence of lack. NO EXPERIMENTS HAVE BEEN DONE. The fact that there is no evidence of a medical cause for vampirism does not mean there is no medical cause for vampirism, and it is pull-your-hair-out monumentally stupid to believe that it does. Research has to actually be done. Experiments have to actually be conducted. That is how science works. You do not declare things nonexistent simply because they haven’t yet been explored!

      I think real vampirism has a metaphysical explanation. This isn’t relevant, though. The fact is (one of the few here): YOU LIED. Please tell us why your article shouldn’t be considered to be nothing more than a lame troll attempt.

  7. I have to say that I’m skeptical to the point of frustrating the people around me pretty often. I am a blood-drinker and do so ONLY because it relieves symptoms I experience, but I do not identify with the vampire archetype. I’m a militant atheist and there is absolutely zero spiritual significance to the act for me. I am not confident that a lack of study on the physiological benefit of blood drinking in people like myself means that it is entirely psychological. Because a lack of serious scientific inquiry into the issue exists, I do feel that it is disingenuous to boil the issue down to something that can be “solved” through psychoanalysis.

  8. I don’t think any of us actually ever claimed to be immortal I mean even if a spirit or demon or whatever you want to call it possessed a human to become a Vampire there is no way in hell than any body could last forever and endure century’s of decomposition that is just Hollywood trash right there. no spirit stays in the same place forever; that would be way too boring. I am going to hate it when I am in an old wrinkly body; I sure hope I am done with this body and it wears out in its 70’s or so so I can move on – who would really want to be immortal anyways if you really know how boring that would be on this filthy poisoned planet…

    1. You would get NONE of the following: Improved healthy, longevity or immortality, youthful appearance, super powers (strength, senses, whatever), social standing, or the ability to make women swoon at your feet. Why exactly would you WANT to render yourself addicted to something only other people can provide, which would result in your being socially ostracized if it were ever discovered? What would you hope to gain by it?

  9. Not necessarily You will stay healthy if you feed properly and there is the Allure if you know how to use it. BUT You cannot become a Vampire and you will wish you were not one when the feeding becomes almost impossible and your own body is feed on to sustain the Vampire; That is why feeding is a must but there are always ways if you know the way and have the friends

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