The Chupacabras as a scapegoat
          The opinions presented in this section may not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Chupacabra Home Page
          Author: Neftali Olmo-Terron, MD
          About the author: Dr. Olmo is a psychiatrist practicing in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He is the Medical Director of the State Psychiatric Hospital and is also in private practice. His own Internet page is http://www.olmo.com
          (Netscape enhanced) and receives e-mail at
          nolmo@caribe.net.

          THE CHUPACABRAS IS A SCAPEGOAT

          by Neftali Olmo-Terron, MD
          Puerto Rico has its own Loch Ness Monster, its own Yeti, Bigfoot. It is called the Chupacabras, Goatsucker when translated literally. The intense curiosity about its nature and whereabouts is depicted in this Home Page quite well. Rather than expanding in angles that keep others really busy, I would like to analyze some of the universal and local psychological underpinnings for this type of phenomenon. I'll try to keep it simple.

          The not-real nature of the creature is clearly established by the inexplicable vast territory supposedly covered by the derelict (it has been seen in Florida already!), as well as by the negative forensic findings of the veterinary pathologists. They have established quite rational explanations for various incidents. So much can be said by the homologous creatures allegedly seen in various parts of the globe. That being the case, what powerfull force and energy keeps so many people interested for such a prolongued period of time? This is something that goes beyond the need for the media to sell paper (or electronic images).

          THE MYTH

          The human animal has been believing as long as we can historically tell. Gazzaniga states this in a cristal clear way. The refined paintings on the walls of the Altamira and Lescaux caves, among other places, reflect a sublime artistic skill to depict color, shape, 3-D, and motion, as long as it pertains to animals. The artist could go as far as spraying a stencil of his anatomy, mostly hands, picturing a negative of himself. But when it comes to human figures we can find nothing in the caves. It is obvious that our distant relatives must have had a very strong believe that something bad was going to happen to them if they drew themselves. What? We dont know, but something, whatever.

          Since then, at least, we have not stopped finding something to believe in. Greek and Roman mythologies are well known examples. The Orient and the Middle East dwellers have been prolific writers of myths, even though we call those writings something else. When confronted with contradictions within those systems we respond with rationalization.

          So, the human animal enjoys, perhaps needs to create myths.

          THE GROUP

          Some peculiar phenomena generates when humans organize themselves in groups. Civilized, rational, objective, kind, intelligent and mature individuals become erratic, impulsive, phantasy oriented, arbitrary, and gossipy. Sometimes even cruel. We see this process through Bion's findings and the A.K. Rice Institute Workshops experiences.

          The tribe then creates a fantasy that is supposed to explain as well as to alleviate our misery, ignorance and anxiety. The delusion in this case becomes: Something bad and dangerous outside of our group is the source of our evils. If we are not carefull it will come and eat us, eat our pets, eat our farm animals...We must defend ourselves!

          THE PSYCHE

          Along lines similar to the group processes, the mind grabs any maneouver it can to mantain certain internal balance and tranquility. Here Kernberg and the Psychoanalytic Object Relations Theory are of particular help in conceptualizing and illustrating us.

          Some of us, sometimes, hopefully most of the time, are able to simultaneously process the complex and poly-valenced nature of things inside our minds, BOTH the good and the bad part of things, of people, of feelings, of objects, including ourselves. Some of us, sometimes, regretably too often, are able to maintain a relative hold on life only by keeping contrasting things in separate compartments. The good and the bad cannot be kept and maintained in the same place. If we are to assume at a particular moment that we are good, the bad hence needs to reside somewhere else, outside. This projection is very usefull in creating the SCAPEGOAT. We are good guys here in Puerto Rico. The bad thing is that alien from Mars that sucks the blood of our pets and farm animals!

          This projection is also the source of an external persecutor (See Melanie Kleins work. See also Freuds paper on the Schreber Case). It is now a paranoid threat, the monster will come to attack us from behind... (Invariably the Chupacabras attacks the backyard).

          We can also conceptualize the external nature of our enemies from the point of view of DEPENDENCY. When the intra-psychic representation of ourselves is not clearly defined with clear-cut boundaries around our autonomous selves, things come from outside, for we cannot assume credit fo independent behavior.

          SYMBOLS, SEMANTICS , SENTIMENT and SEX
          (A psychiatric interpretation)

          Chupa cabras. Female-goat sucker. In spanish, the female goat is a name for promiscuous females, prostitutes included. In a time of AIDS, herpes, chlamydia, warts, and other sexually transimitted diseases, even erotic fantasy could be considered dangerous.

          There is really no safe sex. The only acceptable way to chupar la cabra, and accomplish it with certain degree of primitive excitement, is for somebody else to do it!




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