Werewolves in legend and myth may be our earliest record of our ancestor’s attempts at understanding DMN Dysregulation and its associated behavioural rupture.
In the Arcadian myth of Lycaon, described in the Metamorphoses by Ovid, Lycaon commits a grotesque violation. Here in Spain, Manuel Blanco Romasanta was accused of lycanthropy due to the extreme level of his violence.
A common theme in these stories, “Werewolves kill what they love the most and, ironically, the only way that they can be saved is through unconditional and selfless love.”
The Default Mode Network (DMN) is not a vague meaningless academic term; we all experience it every day:
- When we think about ourselves and others
- When our thoughts are in the past or the future
- How we understand people and our relationships with them
- Our emotions and the things we love and desire
- Our automatic thoughts and ideas
When the DMN becomes dysregulated, usually through trauma, our thoughts and feelings become intrusive – we can’t shut them down. No matter how hard we try, the same old thought patterns keep playing in our head. Our emotions become unpredictable and chaotic and often we seek addictive behaviour to distract or sooth our inner experiences.
Our ancestors faced the same paradox that we do! How do you deal with a loved-one who sometimes behaves as if they hate you or does things that they would never normally do?
They knew that addictions are nearly always, ultimately, self-destructive and the only cure is for the werewolf to stop identifying with their curse.
Let me know in the comments if you would like to know more about DMN Dysregulation