Renfield’s Syndrome and the Goth Vampires

The image of the vampire, by now, has become one of power, seductiveness, hunger, and dark secrets. They are often aristocrats, wealthy nocturnal beings with an enviable lifestyle. This has undoubtedly influenced many “wannabe” vampires, who fall into two categories: 1, the goth club vampires who either believe or wish to fantasise that they are real vampires (defining vampires with their own favoured description – it’s become very much a “do it yourself” cult); and 2, the clinically insane who exhibit certain vampiric traits in their behaviour. Since none of us live in a vacuum, and we absorb consciously and unconsciously all those elements which make up our culture, it would literally be impossible for anyone to claim, “No, I haven’t been influenced by the film Dracula”, or “No, I’m completely uninfluenced by Anne Rice’s Lestat”, to name but two examples. For those who are already separated from human emotions to some extent, and already exhibiting unsociable behaviour in some form, exposure to such an intrinsically dangerous belief as that of the modern iconic vampire is certain to exacerbate the condition – and probably to encourage certain new traits.

Richard Noll in his Vampires, Werewolves & Demons: Twentieth Century Reports in the Psychiatric Literature (New York: Brunner/Mazel, Inc. 1992) presents various case histories of persons whose behaviour is certainly to be described as exhibiting Renfield’s Syndrome (clinical vampirism). As Noll says, “The extraordinary phenomena to be found in the shadowlands of psychiatry sometimes do not provide a good fit with existing scientific theories or terminology… [Renfield’s Syndrome is] representative of the entities found along the blurred perimeter of the psychiatric cosmos that have been referred to as ‘uncommon psychiatric syndromes’ (Enoch & Trethowan, 1979) or ‘extraordinary disorders of human behaviour’ (Friedmann & Faguet, 1982).⁶¹

Vampirism is connected with the folklore vampires only insofar as Slavic vampire folklore led via the English literary vampire to the iconic modern European vampire in western culture, and in that form affects those “extraordinary disorders of human behaviour” – it is defined as “the act of drawing blood from an object, (usually a love object) and receiving resultant sexual excitement and pleasure.” There are well-known examples of those who have killed and gained great pleasure from the blood, drinking it or putting it upon themselves, experiencing a feeling of power from their touching or drinking of the blood. It is often a syndrome found in parallel with cannibalistic and necrophiliac fantasies, although may be separate from them.

Montague Summers mentioned that the taste or sight of blood was erotic – a belief that was highly prevalent in the Marquis de la Sade’s novels (Justine, etc.). It is certainly not a universal symbol of eroticism, but has become popularised among goth culture. But even those who enjoy tasting blood cannot live upon it (too much blood intake makes humans ill, no matter how deeply they fantasise that they are vampires) – blood is taken in discreet doses, in what one might call metaphorical toasts to the blood-lore. In short, this blood fetishism is specific to certain sexual behaviours, and is unrelated to the vampire of folklore.