'The King who believed he was a Cow' - Tales from the edge of Psychology (#1).

-'Boanthropy'-

Brains are funny'ol things sometimes. Lovingly crafted by natural selection, tweaked and pruned like a wobbly-bonsai for millions of years, they are still by far the most powerful computer known to mankind. Despite natures best efforts however, this finely tuned, expertly moulded bio-machine can occasionally go a little off-track. This can - as I'm sure you already know - lead to a variety of different disorders.

With our society's long overdue move towards a less stigmatised attitude towards mental health, many of these disorders have slowly become household knowledge. Some disorders however - due to their elusively rare nature- manage to stay somewhat under the collective radar. One such disorder - only rearing it's head very, very rarely indeed - can lead you to wake up believing you are, a cow. This rare disorder is known as 'Boanthropy'.

You heard right, a cow. Okay, lets Moo-ve on (I'm so sorry)

Famously, 'King Nebuchadnezzar the second' (try spelling that one) is believed by many to have suffered from 'Boanthropy', with texts dating back to the 6th century BCE claiming that he was: 'Was driven from men, and did eat grass as the oxen'. Did he suffer fromthis rare psychological disorder? Or, was he an unfortunately early adopter of veganism, before the inception of 'Whole Foods'? I suppose it'll have to remain as one of life's great mysteries.

-The Diagnosis-

Positioned under the umbrella of 'Dilusional Disorders', 'Boanthropy' is thankfully, an extremely rare psychological disorder. A conclusive consensus has not yet been reached as to whether this represents a stand-alone disorder of its own, or perhaps more likely, whether it should be viewed as a manifestation of an over-arching, root delusional disorder.

Interestingly, 'Boanthropy' is also not alone in the mental-illness pantheon of the species-shifters. 'Lycanthropy' affects individuals in much the same way, except, rather than donning your spots and heading out to the pasture to graze alongside your bovine bretherin, 'Lycanthropy' would have you joining your pack in howling to the moon, hunting the night away as your new found wolf alter-ego. Werewolves anybody? Maybe leave that one for another day.

I wonder how those two would get on? A Boanthropy sufferer and a Lycanthropy sufferer walk into a bar ..

-Symptoms & Possible Causes-

Symptom-wise, 'Boanthropy' is reasonably self-explanatory. The individual believes themselves to now be, for all intents and purposes, a cow. They then go on to behave as if this were the case, grazing, walking around on all-fours, the general bovine day-to-day.

It is admittedly, a mind-bogglingly strange disorder to consider, perhaps making empathising with sufferers positions more of a challenge than with your more common mental-health issues. I think it's always important though to keep in mind that despite it's quirkiness, any delusional disorder must a pretty horrific thing to go through, for both the individual & those close to them.

The possible causes of this rare disorder are believed to be varied, and as of yet, are not fully understood. Commonly suggested causes include:

• Hypnotism.
• Suggestion.
• Auto-suggestion.

Dreams have also been suggested as a possible precursor to an episode of 'Boanthropy', with the eminent psychologist Carl Jung recording that:

• 'a stubborn woman dreamed she was attending an important social occasion. She was greeted by the hostess with the words: "How nice that you could come. All your friends are here, and they are waiting for you." The hostess then led her to the door and opened it, and the dreamer stepped through – into a cowshed!'

Perhaps a combination of the above play a role in the onset of this truly unusual cognitive disorder, or perhaps 'Boanthropy' should be considered more as a symptom of an over-arching, root delusional-disorder. Maybe it is simply a manifestation of extreme levels of stress & anxiety? More research is needed before we can truly say for sure.

-Treatment-

Perhaps due to it's rarity, there seems to be little documentation regarding suggested strategies for treatment of this disorder. Talking-therapy such as 'Cognitive Behavioural Therapy' is suggested as showing efficacy, as-well as a regimen of medication suited to treatment of delusional disorders in general.

-Thoughts from the Edge-

Honestly speaking, I had not heard of this disorder before setting out to research this blog a few days ago, immediately I was hooked. Kettle on, coffee brewing. I'm sorry sleep but people are convinced they are cow's, you'll have to wait I'm afraid. Despite having studied and worked within the psychological field for many years now, I'm constantly surprised by the extraordinary things our brains are capable of - Both in positive & negative skews.

The brain truly is an extraordinary thing. Capable of extraordinary achievements, and unfortunately, extraordinary malfunctions. Without getting too preachy, I guess the more we know about these things, the more we can be prepared to help should the situation arise. Although your chances of encountering this rare psychological disorder are no-doubt rare, knowledge can never be a bad thing ey.

Before today, had I seen somebody in the field trotting around clumsily with the cows, eating grass.. I'm not sure what I would have thought. Some sort of weird, sex thing? Channel 4's latest 'documentary'? Well now we know.

Get them to a therapist. And whatever you do, keep them away from the 'Lycanthropy' ward. That's just not going to end well.

Follow me: @callumogilvy

Source material and further (Very interesting!) reading can be found at:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boanthropy
• http://theinfoscience.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/boanthropy.html
• https://prezi.com/s2-ozrxvk2qu/boanthropy/
• http://i.imgur.com/(Image)
• https://www.newstatesman.com/ (Image)

I hope you've enjoyed this post, as always any feedback (or just general chat) is more than welcome! If you found it bearable or perhaps even, dare I say, not bad? Then you're more than welcome to follow me for more weird and wonderful bits and bobs from the world of Psychology.

Have a wonderful day all.