Lyssants – it may be defensive, but it’s aggressive as hell
The rage of lyssants, natural or
rabies-induced, appears to be a defensive act.
It is trying to fend off an unspecified (emotional, subconscious)
threat. Lyssantic rage is not a passive
defense; it is no submissive behavior.
Lyssantic rage is an all-out, full-scale, no-holds barred attack meant to
subdue whatever is felt to be hurting/frustrating the victim – physically and/or psychically. I emphasize ‘feel’ because the rage attack
is not a rational, conscious, social act, but simply the worst the lyssant can muster in
response to an unspecified attacker.
An example of this is the attack this month by
a rabid fox on a boy in North Carolina.
Given the circumstances of the attack, medical personnel did not have to
think before immediately beginning treatment with the anti-rabies vaccine; the
boy will not become infected! Yes, the fox was euthanized, its brain tested,
and yes, it was positively infected by rabies.
"I was trying to walk home and I guess he was running, but
I didn't see him…, and out of nowhere, I felt something grabbing my pants.” The fox continued to harry the boy, following
him as he tried to escape, even going into the boy's apartment and jumping up on a
couch before actually being able to sink its teeth into him.
Wild animals and humans are not typically aggressive unless
aggravated or stalking prey. Wild
animals generally stay/run away from humans. To be found ambling along in the open, like
the beaver in Belarus, is very unusual behavior and a good indication
that something’s wrong “in their head”.
If they do approach and try to attack a human, or if they look like
they're drunk, in a fog and stumbling along, that's a great warning sign that
the human should back away.
Of course, when it appears “out of nowhere”, as the rage of human lyssants generally does, then about all one can do is to escape. One can try to appeal to the lyssant’s positive
emotions and try to elicit rational thought, but it is critical to understand
that it is not happy emotions nor conscious, intellectual thought that is
driving the lyssant. And you can’t
presume the attack will just stop. YOU
aren’t the target; you’re just in the way or are some avatar of a threat. The rage-induced attack will run its course;
until it has given all that it has to give.
If you know a lyssant, have an escape plan because they can’t help
themselves, and you can’t help them while they are a lyssant. If you’ve ever been chased by someone with lyssant
road rage, you know what it means. I had
one person tell me that during a fit of road rage, they followed, honked at, and tried to harass their ‘target’
for miles!
Of course, we shouldn’t have to deal more than twice with someone’s lyssant behavior.
Like so many other ills of social behavior, the person prone to being a
lyssant needs to take responsibility for their actions and seek help. Ah, there’s the rub, what help can they
seek? Psychodynamic therapy is largely
ineffective, at best it can point out some initial issue that now triggers
lyssantic behavior. To assume that such conscious
“insight” can control non-/sub-conscious behavioral repertoires is foolishly presumptuous. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is equally
inappropriate to deal with autonomic nervous system dysfunctions that are neither
cognitive nor, at base, open to learning/conditioning. One avenue is to teach the lyssant to be
mindful of themselves in social situations.
To become aware of signs in their own behavior that are omens that
their inner lyssant is being activated, and to extract themselves from those
situations. This is much, much, much easier said
than done.
rabies. Without that neuronal communication receptor being identified and studied, we stand
no chance of helping human lyssants, vampires, and werewolves.
