Plato, 51–52, 58, 59, 194–195, 212
platypuses, 125
playthings of Nature, monsters as, 38
pleasure principle, 188
pleiotropy, 273
Pliny the Elder
book of (see Natural History)
on Chinese, 37
and credulity, 33
on fossils, 30
on giant octopi, 35
on griffins, 28
on hermaphrodites, 42
on India and Ethiopia, 22
on manticores, 33, 34
on Nature’s playthings, 38
on physiognomy, 283
on Scythian tribes, 36
on toad-fish monster, 142
on umbrella-footed humans, 36
on unicorns, 129
on werewolves, 33–35
Pliny the Younger, 75
pliosaurs, 279
Plutarch, 37, 42–43
Poe, Edgar Allen, 183, 184–185
Poetics (Aristotle), 34–35
poetry, 27
Polidori, John, 183
political agendas, 37–38, 142
polydactyls, 36, 174
Polyphemus, 26–27, 98
pope-ass monster, 142
population reduction theory, 168
pornography, 245
possession
ancient accounts of, 57–58, 59
and exorcisms, 106–107, 119–120, 278, 279
and loss of agency, 284
modern accounts of, 278–279
and psychopathology, 225–226
and sexual repression, 117
posthumanism, 261–262, 266–267, 273–274, 275
postmodernism, 252, 253, 275
poverty, 248, 249
power, human drive for, 187, 217, 244, 265–266
Power, Samantha, 281
Prague, 11–12, 12
predators, 24, 198–199
preformationism, 45–46
pregnancy, 143, 146–148, 162
“Prester John’s Land” (Driesbach), 78
pride, 101, 102
primates, 239–240
primitivism, 216–217
Prince Randian, 139–140
prison experiment at Stanford University, 244–245
prodigies, 146
Proffitt, Dennis R., 22
projection, 57, 198
Prometheus Bound (Aeschylus), 27, 28
Protestants, 142
Protoceratops, 28–29, 29
prototype theory, 282–283
Prysner, Mike, 235
Pseudodoxia epidemica (Browne), 127–128
pseudoprophetes (false prophets), 68
psittacosaurus, 29
psychopaths, 193, 212, 223–226, 228. See
also criminal monsters Psychopathy Checklist diagnostic tool, 220
psychosomatic theories, 148
purpose of monsters, 43–44, 48–49, 275–276
Pygmies, 77
Pynchon, Thomas R., 284
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, 33
Al-Qaida, 249
Al-Qaida Reader, 248
Quay, Stephen, 194
Quay, Timothy, 194
Qur’an, 92
race
attitudes toward, 235
and lynchings, 232–233
monstrous races, 36–38, 233, 235
and natural selection, 237
See also xenophobia
racism, 138
rage, 208–212, 227
Raimi, Sam, 183
ram, one-horned, 43, 48
Ramayana, 37
Ramirez, Richard, 280
rape, 210, 246
reality principle, 188–189, 191, 192
reason and rationality
of the ancients, 42–45, 52–54, 57, 58, 60
and concept of monsters, 10
Freudian theory on, 188
of medieval intellectuals, 80–81
reductionism, 153, 258, 268, 274
Reformation, 142
relativism, 252, 253–254
religion, 188, 192, 216. See also specific faiths repression
and adulthood, 190
and conscience development, 210
and narcissism, 189
and sexuality, 116–117, 195–196, 215–216
and torture porn, 197
and uncanniness, 192
reproduction
ambivalent reactions to, 184
and bio-horror, 201
and demons, 144–145
and hybridism, 167–168
and witches, 112-113
Republic (Plato), 52–54, 194–195, 212
repulsion, 5–7
Resident Evil video game, 198
Resnick, Mitchel, 259–260
responding to the marvelous, Doran’s model of, 130–132, 140
Rhizocephala (“root-headed” barnacle), 198–199
Ringling Brothers Circus, 139, 139
Ritvo, Harriet, 129
The Road (McCarthy), 25, 197
Robinson, Margaret, 33
robo-roach technology, 263
robotics, 190–191, 257–260, 263
Roman Catholic Church
and Inquisition, 107–108, 112, 113
and omens, 142
and papacy, 68, 107, 113
and witches, 278
Romans, ancient
and biblical prophecy, 67
ethnocentrism of, 36
and hermaphrodites, 39–42
and infanticide, 40, 41
and prophetic arts, 39
Romantic criticisms of science, 152–153
Romero, George, 183
Romulus, 40
Rops, Felicien, 118
Roth, Eli, 196–197
Rove, Karl, 281
Royal College of Surgeons, 156, 166
Rush, Benjamin, 236–237
Russell, Bertrand, 250
Rutilius Lupus, 39
Rwanda, 240
sadism, 195, 215
Sadler, John, 143
Said, Edward, 37–38, 236
Salem witch trials, 109
saltational jumps in nature, 165–166, 166–169, 170–171
Sartre, Jean-Paul, 185, 192
Satan, 64, 68. See also demons and devils
satyrs, 36, 79, 88
Saw, 195, 204
scapegoats, monsters as, 11
Scaurus, Marcus, 30
school massacres, 203–204, 205, 216
Schopenhauer, Arthur, 187, 191, 192
Schubert, Laura, 279
Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 257
science fiction films, 199, 212–215
Sciopodes (one-legged men), 77–78, 78, 129
Scopes monkey trial, 139
Scott, Ridley, 192, 201, 201
Scythia, 88
sea monsters, 126
in Book of Revelation, 68
giant octopi, 35, 185
Kraken sea monster, 2, 185
in literature, 185
Loch Ness Monster, 279
phobias about, 1–3
Seba, Albertus, 123
secular ideology, 196
Security Prison S21, 7–9, 8
Seductions of Crime (Katz), 211
segmentation process (somitogenesis), 171, 176–177
Sein und Zeit (Heidegger), 185
Semu-Banda, Pilirani, 278
Seneca, 55, 60
September 11th terrorist attacks, 197, 201, 241, 249
serial killers
and aggression, 210
in film, 241
media coverage of, 195
and murderabilia, 279, 280
and pornography, 245
public fascination with, 195, 280
Seth (biblical), 88
severed limbs, 188, 190, 193
sexuality
androgyny, 42
demonization of, 118, 118–119
homosexuality, 215–216
and horror films, 195–196, 202
and hybrid mon
sters, 145
incest, 204–205, 212, 216–217
and repression, 116–117, 195–196, 215–216
sexual abuse, 59, 225
and technology, 261, 276
See also desire; genders
Shakespeare, William, 130, 131–132, 140
shape-shifting
ambivalent reactions to, 184
of demons, 104, 106, 116
of witches, 108
Shelley, Mary, 11–12, 100, 151–153, 183
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 152
The Shining, 193
Siamese twins, 137
The Sick Woman’s Private Looking-Glass (Sadler), 143
Simpson, O. J., 212
sin, 81
Single White Female, 280–281
666 (mark of the beast), 68
skepticism, 36, 126, 127, 136, 140
slavery, 237, 238, 257, 258
Sleepy Hollow (film), 193
Sleepy Hollow (Irving), 183
sloths, 32, 133
Smith, Susan, 59, 231
snakes, 3, 4, 5, 91, 132
snot, 184
social constructionism, 252
socialization, 210–211, 247
social stresses, 197
society’s role in psychopathology, 244–249
socioeconomic theory, 248
Socrates, 51, 52–54, 57, 194–195
soi pour soi, law of, 158–159
Solinus, 88
souls of monsters, 79–83
Spartans, 242–243
speciation, 166–171
Species and Varieties: Their Origin by Mutation (De Vries), 170
speculative monsterology, 162
spiders, 3–4, 4
spirits, 188
spiritual depravity, 142–143
spit, 184
splatter-punk film genre, 194, 195
Sprenger, Jakob, 113
Stanford University prison experiment, 244–245
Stelarc, 263, 263–264, 264
stereotyping, 37–38
Stevens, Dana, 242–243
Stile, Elizabeth, 109
Stoicism, 59, 60, 117
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Stevenson), 206–207
Stratton, Charles (Tom Thumb), 136, 137
Strickland, Debra Higgs, 234
Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche (Jung), 225
sublime (concept), 186–187, 191, 192
succubi, 113, 144, 145
Suetonius, 30–31
suffering, 99, 198–199
suicide, 60, 70
suicide bombers, 248, 250
Summa Theologica (Thomas Aquinas), 79–80
Superego, 210
Supernatural Horror in Literature (Lovecraft), 185
superstition, 42–45
surrealism, 193
suspension of disbelief, 131 Sweeney Todd, 193
symbolism
in Bible, 65, 66, 67–69, 73
of frustrations, 191
of hubris, 98
during Reformation, 142
Taliban, 253–254
Tarantino, Quentin, 193
tarantula hawks, 199
Tartars, 87
tattoos, 109
technology
artificial intelligence, 266–269
biotechnology, 269–274
cyborgs, 260–265
and God, 257, 262, 267, 274
robotics, 190–191, 257–260, 263
technophobia, 284
teleology, 42–45, 48–49, 159, 168–169, 179
The Tell-Tale Heart (Poe), 183
Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 185
teratology, 156–159, 163–164, 166, 169, 172–175
Terminator films, 257–258, 259
terrorism, 241, 248–249
tetrapods, 173–174
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 196, 197
Thales, 44–45
Thanatos, 215
Them, 201
Thesaurus (Seba), 123
Theseus, 191
The Thing from Another World, 199, 200
Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 79–80, 115
300 (film), 242, 242–243, 283
Thucydides, 43
Thumb, Tom, 136, 137
thumos, 52–54, 55–56, 57, 58. See also emotions
Tillman, William, 137
toad-fish monster, 141–142
Tobias, Krystal, 10
Todd, Sweeney, 195
tolerance, 42, 253
Tolkien, J. R. R., 97–98, 101, 283
tomatoes, genetic engineering of, 262, 271
Topsell, Edward, 130, 145
torture, 7–9, 245
torture porn film genre, 194–198
Totem and Taboo (Freud), 57
transgendered people, 270–271
transhumanism, 261–262, 266–267, 273–274
transmutation, 163–166, 167–168
travelers’ tales, 27, 188
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville (Mandeville), 27, 90–91
tribalism, 240
Tritons, 30, 34
Tsukuba University, 263
Turing, Alan, 267
Turing test, 267
Turistas, 195
Tutsis, 240
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea (Verne), 185
Twin Peaks, 193
2001: A Space Odyssey, 267
tyrant personalities, 53
Ugandan Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, 70
ugliness, 283
umbrella-footed humans, 36, 78
uncanniness (Freudian concept), 188, 190, 191, 192–193
“The Uncanny” (Freud), 188
uncanny valley, 190–191
unconscious, 188, 190
Unferth, 94–95
unheimlich, 188
unicorns, 125, 129
U.S. Department of Defense, 258–259
U.S. National Nanotech Initiative, 260
vagina-inhabiting snakes, 91
vampire bats, 132–133
vampire clan in Murray, Kentucky, 13
The Vampyre (Polidori), 183
variations, genetic
as biological mechanism, 275
Darwin on, 166, 167, 170
De Vries on, 170
Lawrence on, 160, 162, 167
and speciation, 163
Vazquez-Salazar, Nelly, 278–279
vengeance, 55–56, 58
ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC), 224
Verne, Jules, 185
victimization, 59–60, 211
Victorian era, 130, 187–188
video games, 191, 198
Vietnam conflict, 197, 235
violence, 220, 247
vitalism, 152
Volta, Alessandro, 152
vomit, 184, 193
Vries, Hugo de, 170, 179
Vrolik Museum, 6, 158, 174
vulnerability, 183–202
and bio-horror, 198–199
and cosmic fear, 185
and horror films, 194–198, 200–202
and modernity, 186
theories based in, 191–192
See also horror
Waal, Frans de, 239
Wallace, David Foster, 193
Wall-E, 258
warfare, 234–235, 241
Warwick, Kevin, 261
Watchers (Grigori), 72, 74
Waterton, Charles, 132–134
werewolf syndrome (hypertrichosis), 137
werewolves, 33–35, 114–115, 169
West, Thomas, 141–142
Whedon, Joss, 195
Wild at Heart, 193
Wills, Gary, 232–233
Windsor witches, 108, 109
witches, 107–113
and demons, 108, 109, 111, 112–113, 118–119
and desire, 117
and gender, 118–119
in literature, 130, 131
modern accounts of, 278
and rise of science, 134
&n
bsp; tests and trials for, 109, 111, 119
witch hunters, 113-115, 278
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of Psychopaths among Us (Hare), 220
Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 282
wolf archetype, 126
Wood, J. G., 133
wunderkammern, 135–136
Wuornos, Aileen, 59
Xenophanes, 37
xenophobia
and instincts, 239–240
of medieval Christians, 86–87
and race, 231–235
and sexual repression, 217
theoretical frameworks for, 236–239
zebra fish monsters, 176–177
Zefirus, 19
Zemeckis, Robert, 100, 101
Zimbardo, Philip, 231, 244–245, 249
Zip the Pinhead, 138–139, 139
Zohar, 89
zombies, 40, 190, 191
zoology, 126, 127
Zoroastrianism, 64
On Monsters: An Unnatural History of Our Worst Fears Page 48