Page 102 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

82 Mysterious Creatures

role-playing games, the continuing bestselling The vast majority of those enthralled by
status of the Anne Rice vampire novels, and the vampire lifestyle are those young people
the high ratings of television series based on who find dressing the part of an attractive and
vampires and the occult, it would be an seductive member of the undead appeals to
impossible task to estimate the current popu- their romantic sensibilities. For them it is like
lation of those who define themselves as some being able to dress up for Halloween at least
facet of the term “vampire,” or to establish any one night per week all year long.
but the most approximate demographics. Mil-
lions of readers and viewers have agreed with While role-playing as vampires and vic-
Rice that the vampire is a romantic, tims may be considered quite harmless as long
enthralling figure. The author’s major vampire as the participants know when to draw the
character, Lestat de Lioncourt, and her series line between fantasy and reality, those who
of books in the “Vampire Chronicles” series, cross the boundaries of mental abnormality
portray the undead as far from grotesque, into blood fetishism and obsessive blood-
shroud-wrapped monsters. Rice has stated that drinking may gradually develop a psychosis
she perceives the vampire as an individual that can force them to mutilate or even kill
who never dies, who exerts a charm over peo- others. On February 1, 2002, a 23-year-old
ple, then accepts their blood as a sacrifice that woman who said that she became a vampire in
he might live. In her opinion, the image of the London, then murdered a man in Germany
vampire is alluring, attractive, seductive, and and drank his blood, was jailed for the crime.
the idea of being sacrificed to keep such an According to psychologists, the true lair of
entity alive becomes rather romantic. the vampire must be sought in the hidden
In the November 24, 2000, issue of The recesses of the human mind, rather than in
New York Times, Margaret Mittelbach and secluded burial vaults. The desire to assume
Michael Crewdson reported on the city’s vam- the guise of a vampire, is highly suggestive of
pire scene that has been going strong since the pathologically immature, dependent personal-
mid-1990s and the many nightclubs that cater ities, who cannot fend for themselves in nor-
to the “daylight-challenged” in their article, mal everyday living, but who must attach
“Vampires: Painting the Town Red.” The jour- themselves to a more productive personality,
nalists describe the activities in “dens” where just as the vampire attaches itself to those
as many as 300 “undead heads” dance, drink, hosts on whose blood it feeds. Such individu-
and make merry late into the night. The dress als almost always subconsciously desire to
code in such establishments is “gothic,” “dark- return to the state of complete dependence
fetish,” “faerie,” “Wiccan,” or “Celtic” and the characteristic of the prenatal state. Psychoan-
overwhelmingly predominant color of the alysts often discover that in those pathological
clothing is black. On the “rare occasion” cases in which subjects believe themselves to
when a patron of these vampire havens smiles, be vampires the grave or coffin comes to sym-
Mittelbach and Crewdson noted, one can bolize the womb. The vampire’s dependence
make out “the glint of white fangs.” upon the grave or coffin as a place of safety
seems again to betray a deep longing for the
Other researchers have discovered that
prenatal security of the womb. The act of
these “Human Living Vampires” believe that
sucking a victim’s blood is in itself significant,
they require blood in order to function at their
for many psychologists state that such an act
highest level of proficiency. They realize that
would be a sign of mother-fixation.
they are not really immortal beings, but they
may feel that they have extrasensory abilities
that border on the supernatural that are M Delving Deeper
accentuated with the ingestion of human Fodor, Nandor. Between Two Worlds. New York:
blood. Most often the vital fluid is obtained Paperback Library, 1967.
from willing donors who permit the vampires ———. The Haunted Mind: A Psychoanalyst Looks at
to make small cuts or punctures in their flesh the Supernatural. New York: New American
and lick or suck the blood. Library, 1968.

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