In the winter of 1878, a Cree man named Swift Runner arrived at a Hudson’s Bay Company trading post in Alberta, Canada.

He was emaciated, nearly dead from starvation.

He said his family—his wife and six children—had all died during the harsh winter. He’d buried them in the snow. He was the only survivor.

The authorities were suspicious. Swift Runner showed signs of starvation, but not as severe as someone who’d watched his entire family die of hunger should show.

They investigated his campsite.

What they found was horrifying: the remains of his family, butchered and partially consumed.

Swift Runner had killed and eaten them.

When confronted, he claimed he’d been possessed by a wendigo—a cannibalistic spirit from Algonquian mythology. The wendigo had entered him, filled him with insatiable hunger for human flesh, and forced him to devour his own family.

He was convicted and hanged in December 1879.

But to Indigenous communities in the region, Swift Runner wasn’t simply a murderer. He was a victim of wendigo psychosis—a culture-specific mental illness.

The Wendigo Legend

In Algonquian cultures (including Cree, Ojibwe, and other groups across northern Canada and the northern United States), the wendigo is a malevolent spirit associated with winter, starvation, and cannibalism.

The legend varies by community, but common elements include:

The Wendigo as Monster: A creature that was once human but became transformed through cannibalism or possession into a monstrous being with an insatiable hunger for human flesh.

The Wendigo as Spirit: An evil spirit that possesses humans, turning them into cannibals.

Physical Description: Often described as emaciated despite eating constantly, with glowing eyes, sharp teeth, and an association with ice and cold.

The Transformation: A person who commits cannibalism, even in desperation, risks becoming a wendigo—transformed permanently into a monster that can never be satisfied.

The wendigo represented one of the greatest taboos and fears in cultures where winter starvation was a real threat: the fear that desperation would drive someone to cannibalize their own community.

Wendigo Psychosis as Mental Illness

Wendigo psychosis (also called wendigo sickness) was a documented phenomenon among northern Algonquian communities, characterized by:

Obsessive Fear of Becoming a Wendigo: An overwhelming terror that one is transforming into a wendigo.

Cannibalistic Ideation: Intrusive thoughts about eating human flesh, accompanied by horror and revulsion.

Insatiable Hunger: Feelings of starvation despite eating, along with a specific craving for human flesh.

Behavioral Changes: Social withdrawal, aggression, paranoia.

Homicidal Compulsions: In severe cases, actually attempting to kill and consume other humans.

What made wendigo psychosis remarkable was that it only appeared in cultures where the wendigo belief existed.

It was a culture-bound syndrome—a mental illness that manifests in specific cultural contexts, shaped by that culture’s beliefs and fears.

Documented Cases

Historical records from the 18th through early 20th centuries document numerous cases of wendigo psychosis:

Swift Runner (1878): Killed and cannibalized his family, claimed wendigo possession.

Jack Fiddler: A Cree shaman who, over his lifetime, reportedly killed 14 people whom he identified as wendigos or people in the process of transforming into wendigos. He considered these mercy killings—ending the transformation before the person fully became a monster. He was eventually arrested by Canadian authorities in 1907 and died in custody.

Joseph Fiddler: Jack Fiddler’s brother, who participated in some of the killings and was also arrested. He was convicted of murder.

The Berens River Case (1907): A woman exhibited wendigo psychosis symptoms—claiming she was turning into a wendigo and would kill her family. The community isolated her, and she eventually died, possibly from being left to die in isolation as a preventive measure.

Many cases likely went unreported. The response to wendigo psychosis varied: sometimes the affected person was killed (considered a necessary mercy to prevent transformation), sometimes isolated, sometimes subjected to traditional healing practices.

The Cultural Logic

From an outside perspective, wendigo psychosis looks like a delusion—people believing they’re transforming into mythological creatures.

But within the cultural context, it made sense:

Winter Starvation Was Real: Northern Algonquian communities faced genuine food scarcity during harsh winters. Starvation was a real, recurring threat.

Cannibalism as Last Resort: There are historical accounts of cannibalism occurring during extreme starvation events. It was a horrifying possibility that communities had to acknowledge.

Psychological Breakdown Under Stress: Starvation, isolation, cold, and the psychological pressure of watching loved ones die could trigger mental breakdowns.

Cultural Framework for Madness: The wendigo belief system provided a framework to understand why someone might develop homicidal, cannibalistic urges: possession by an evil spirit.

It wasn’t that the culture created the mental illness from nothing. Rather, universal psychological phenomena (psychotic breaks, violent ideation, compulsive thoughts) were shaped and expressed through the cultural lens of the wendigo.

The Psychology Behind It

Modern psychiatry would likely diagnose historical wendigo psychosis cases as some combination of:

Psychotic Disorders: Delusions, hallucinations, disorganized thinking (schizophrenia, brief psychotic disorder).

Severe Depression or Anxiety: Obsessive thoughts, intrusive ideation, overwhelming fear.

Starvation-Induced Psychosis: Severe malnutrition can cause hallucinations, delusions, and altered perception.

Dissociative Disorders: Feeling disconnected from self, experiencing parts of oneself as alien or monstrous.

Culture-Bound Expression: The underlying psychological distress expressed itself through culturally available concepts (wendigo transformation).

The belief in wendigos didn’t cause mental illness. But it shaped how mental illness manifested and how affected individuals interpreted their symptoms.

Someone experiencing psychotic symptoms in a community without wendigo beliefs might believe they’re being followed by the CIA or implanted with alien technology.

In an Algonquian community with strong wendigo beliefs, the same psychotic symptoms might manifest as believing you’re transforming into a wendigo.

Culture-Bound Syndromes

Wendigo psychosis is one of several documented culture-bound syndromes—mental illnesses that appear primarily or exclusively in specific cultural contexts:

Koro (Southeast Asia): Fear that one’s genitals are retracting into the body and will cause death.

Ataque de nervios (Latin American cultures): Episodes of intense emotional distress with screaming, crying, aggression, and dissociative symptoms.

Taijin kyofusho (Japan): Intense fear that one’s appearance, body odor, or behavior is offensive to others.

Susto (Latin American cultures): Illness caused by a frightening experience that causes the soul to leave the body.

Running amok (Southeast Asia, now a general term): Sudden rage and aggressive behavior, often ending in violence.

These aren’t fake or imagined illnesses. They’re real psychological distress manifesting through culture-specific frameworks.

The Role of Belief

What wendigo psychosis demonstrates:

Belief systems shape how we experience psychological distress.

If you believe that cannibalistic spirits can possess people, and you develop intrusive thoughts about violence or cannibalism (which can occur in various psychological conditions), you might interpret those thoughts as evidence of possession.

Once you believe you’re being possessed, that belief can intensify symptoms. Fear of transformation feeds into obsessive thoughts, creating a self-reinforcing cycle.

Cultural frameworks provide interpretations for disturbing experiences.

Hearing voices, experiencing compulsions, feeling disconnected from reality—these are frightening experiences that demand explanation.

In one cultural context, the explanation might be “I have schizophrenia.”

In another, it might be “I’m being possessed by a wendigo.”

Both are frameworks for understanding the same underlying experience.

Belief can influence behavior.

If you believe you’re transforming into a wendigo, you might act accordingly: withdrawing from community (to protect them), refusing to eat (to starve the hunger), or in extreme cases, actually engaging in violence (if the possession belief is strong enough).

The Decline of Wendigo Psychosis

Reports of wendigo psychosis decreased dramatically through the 20th century and are essentially non-existent today.

Why?

Cultural Change: As Algonquian communities became more integrated with Western culture, traditional belief systems weakened. Younger generations often don’t hold strong wendigo beliefs.

Modern Medical Frameworks: Psychological distress is now more likely to be interpreted through medical/psychiatric frameworks rather than spiritual ones.

Reduced Isolation and Starvation: Improved food security, infrastructure, and contact with outside communities reduced the conditions (starvation, extreme isolation) that may have triggered cases.

Different Cultural Expression: The same underlying psychological conditions still exist, but they manifest differently. Someone who would have experienced wendigo psychosis in 1850 might experience paranoid delusions framed through modern concerns (government surveillance, technology) in 2025.

The Ethical Complexity

Wendigo psychosis cases raise difficult ethical questions:

Were people killed unjustly?

Many individuals exhibiting wendigo psychosis symptoms were killed by their communities—considered necessary to prevent transformation into monsters.

From a modern perspective, these were mentally ill people being killed for having delusions.

But from the community’s perspective, they were preventing genuine danger.

Was it mental illness or cultural belief?

If someone genuinely believes in wendigos and experiences symptoms consistent with possession, are they mentally ill, or are they having a culturally-appropriate response to psychological distress?

How should outside authorities have responded?

When Canadian authorities arrested Jack Fiddler for killing people he identified as wendigos, they were enforcing laws against murder.

But they were also imposing their cultural framework (murder is always wrong) over an Indigenous framework (killing wendigos is necessary for community safety).

What It Tells Us About Mental Illness

Wendigo psychosis reveals important truths about the nature of mental illness:

Mental illness is universal, but its expression is cultural.

Psychological distress appears in all cultures. But the specific symptoms, interpretations, and manifestations are shaped by cultural context.

Belief systems matter.

What you believe about the nature of reality, spiritual forces, and the mind influences how you experience and express psychological distress.

Context shapes diagnosis.

What counts as “mental illness” depends partly on cultural context. Behavior considered normal in one culture might be pathologized in another.

You can’t separate psychology from culture.

The mind doesn’t exist in isolation from the cultural environment that shapes beliefs, interpretations, and expressions.

The Modern Relevance

While wendigo psychosis is rare today, the principle it demonstrates remains relevant:

Our cultural beliefs shape our psychological experiences.

If you grow up in a culture that emphasizes certain fears or frameworks, those will influence how you interpret your own mental states.

Modern culture-bound expressions might include:

  • Technology-related delusions (being monitored through devices, brain implants)
  • Social media-related anxiety disorders
  • Modern conspiracy-related belief systems that function like possession beliefs

These aren’t identical to wendigo psychosis, but they follow the same pattern: cultural frameworks shaping how psychological distress manifests.

The Tragedy of Swift Runner

Returning to Swift Runner: was he possessed by a wendigo, or mentally ill, or simply a murderer?

Probably all three, depending on your framework:

From his perspective: possessed by a wendigo, driven to do something horrifying against his will.

From a psychiatric perspective: experiencing psychotic symptoms, possibly exacerbated by starvation.

From a legal perspective: a murderer who killed and cannibalized his family.

All three interpretations describe the same events, just through different cultural and conceptual lenses.

The tragedy is that there was no effective help available in any framework. The spiritual framework led to execution. The legal framework led to execution. A psychiatric framework didn’t exist.

Swift Runner died on the gallows, and whatever combination of psychological distress, cultural belief, and circumstances led to his actions died with him.

The Haunting Question

What makes wendigo psychosis particularly unsettling isn’t just that people believed they were transforming into monsters.

It’s that the culture created a pathway from psychological distress to actual cannibalistic violence.

The belief system didn’t just interpret symptoms—it potentially facilitated acting on them.

If you believe you’re transforming into a wendigo, and wendigos eat people, then eating people becomes thinkable—even inevitable.

The belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

This raises the disturbing possibility that cultural frameworks don’t just shape how we interpret mental illness—they can shape how mental illness expresses itself behaviorally.

The Lesson

Wendigo psychosis stands as a reminder that:

Mental illness doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It emerges from the interaction between neurology, psychology, culture, and environment.

The wendigo didn’t cause mental illness. But the belief in wendigos shaped how certain types of psychological distress manifested and how communities responded.

And now that the belief has largely faded, so has the illness.

Not because mental illness disappeared. But because it manifests differently when the cultural framework changes.

The human mind is profoundly shaped by the stories its culture tells about what minds can do, what they can become, and what to fear.

Tell a story about cannibalistic possession, and some minds will experience that as reality.

Tell different stories, and those same minds will experience different realities.

The monsters change. But the capacity for our beliefs to become our experience remains constant.

Sources:

  • Brightman, R. A. (1988). “The Windigo in the Material World.” Ethnohistory, 35(4), 337-379.
  • Carlson, N. B. (2009). “Reviving Witiko (Windigo): An Ethnohistory of ‘Cannibal Monsters’ in the Athabasca District of Northern Alberta, 1878-1910.” Ethnohistory, 56(3), 355-394.
  • Marano, L. (1982). “Windigo Psychosis: The Anatomy of an Emic-Etic Confusion.” Current Anthropology, 23(4), 385-412.
  • Smallman, S. C. (2015). Whom Do You Believe?: Doubt and Shock Over Winnipeg’s “Frozen People” Crisis. University of Manitoba Press.

Next in the series: The Genain Quadruplets - Four identical sisters who all developed schizophrenia, but in completely different ways.