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A werewolf is an animal from folklore believed to consume human flesh or blood, which can change from human to wolf and back again. (Wer is an Old English term for man.) While there are no documented cases of any human turning into a wolf and back, there are documented cases of humans who believed they were werewolves. To suffer from such a delusion is known as lycanthropy. Lycanthropic Disorder is a mental condition in which the subject (called a Lycanthrope) believes that he or she is a werewolf. The subject does not actually change shape, but is nevertheless capable of being as dangerous as an actual werewolf. Most cases of supposed werewolfry are really the works of Lycanthropic Disorder victims. A werewolf is traditionally defined as a half human half animal creature. In myth werewolves were described as blood thirsty predators which killed women and children. They were supposedly savage creatures, possessing the ability to transform into a half man half animal commonly called a "biped" for as well as a savage beast, normally this was a wolf. This myth is perpetuated by Hollywood films and books depicting werewolves as a creature to be feared and loathed. Some have speculated that certain excessively hirsute individuals resemble wolves and that the legend of the werewolf may have a basis in the genetic disorder known as hypertrichosis or in some other endocrine disorder, such as adrenal virilism, basophilic adenoma of the pituitary, masculinizing ovarian tumors, or Stein-Leventhal syndrome. We humans fear the beast within the wolf because we do not understand the beast within ourselves"---Gerald Hausman