The Man Who Thought He was a Cat

In 1985, the late neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote a now famous book about case histories of his patients with unusual neurological conditions.  In The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat, he documents the strange condition of a musician who suffered from visual agnosia:  difficulty recognizing previously familiar images.  Thus, while leaving his office, he casually grabbed his wife’s head and began pulling, thinking it was his hat.  Even more remarkable, his wife reacted as if it were normal, as she had lived with his disorder for some time.  This is but one of many unusual conditions that have been documented in the annals of psychiatry.  But in all of my years of research, I have never come across such a strange tale as the man who thought he was a cat. 

How does this story end up in a blog about contagious behavior?  After all, people believing they are cats, is not exactly a trend.  True, but during the Middle Ages, Europe was rife with reports of people transforming into a variety of animals, most commonly wolves.  During the 16th and 17th centuries, there were dozens of high profile lycanthropy trials involving claims that the accused was a witch and had the ability to shapeshift into a wolf.  In many cases, the claims were based on rumors and hearsay, and the accused denied the charge.  Others readily admitted to transforming into a werewolf, and appear to have been suffering from a variety of psychiatric conditions.  In France, between the 14th and 15th centuries, claims and accusations of werewolfism were nearly as common as those of witchcraft.  During this period, lycanthropy was nothing short of an epidemic.  In psychiatry, lycanthropy is a generic term used to describe a person, usually suffering from severe psychosis, with a delusion of being an animal – wolf or otherwise.  The word is usually associated with werewolves and comes from the Greek words lukos (wolf) and anthropos (man). 

Back to the story of the modern-day cat-man.  Paul Keck Jr. of the Harvard Medical School, wrote up the case in a 1990 issue of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease.  One day, a 17-year-old boy was in a psychiatrists’ office seeking help after experiencing a bout of major depression.  During the session, he made a passing remark that was nothing short of astonishing.  He said that since early adolescence, he had led a secret life as a cat.  Even more astounding – he had been able to keep his secret from his friends and relatives. 

During the initial consultation, the patient admitted that as a child, he felt closer to his family’s pet cat Tiffany than to his parents.  In fact, he said he fell in love with Tiffany and came to believe that he too was a feline, and that at age 11, he learned to “speak cat.”  The man’s childhood was far from normal; he was often tied to a tree in the yard, and grew angry with his parents.  It was at this time, he ‘fell’ for Tiffany and looked upon her as a “surrogate parent.”  What he reported next is so remarkable, I will quote directly from the psychiatrists report, lest you think I am embellishing:  “When alone, he began to regularly hunt with cats, to eat small prey and raw meat, to have sexual activity with cats in serial monogamous relationships, and to converse with them by mewing and feline gestures.  He reports that the activities have been continuous and are not confined to episodes of depression.”   He also told of paying frequent visits to zoos to see the tigers, where he attempted to talk to them “in tiger language” and collect their loose fur.  By age 17, he reported coming to the realisation that he was a tiger cat due to his affinity for tigers and his large build.  It was at this time that he began to confide in his friends and psychiatrists of his secret cat identity.  He said that Tiffany had encouraged him to ‘come out of the closet’ with his human friends.    

At the time the psychiatrists wrote their report on the case in 1990, he was 26 years-old, and had been under psychiatric care for the past several years.  Treatment ranged from electroconvulsive shocks to psychotherapy and an array of anti-depressants.  His most severe episode of depression occurred after he had been infatuated with ‘Dolly,’ a zoo tiger, whom he had hoped to release.  Upon learning that Dolly had been sold to an Asian zoo, he tried to hang himself.  He had become obsessed with Dolly after breaking up with his girlfriend who left to attend a distant university.  

While the man was able to function in society, his belief that he was a cat was unshakable.  He also would have stood out from the crowd as he wore tiger-striped clothes, sported exceptionally long nails, and had long, bushy hair and a beard, giving him a distinctive cat-like appearance.  At the time of their report, the man, while taking a variety of drugs to control his depression, was gainfully employed.  He was living in an apartment that he shared with two flatmates, and yes, a cat! 

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