Study looks at real-life vampires
An Idaho State University professor co-authored a study about real vampires and others with alternative identities, exploring their relationship with helping professionals.
The study is titled“Do We Always Practice What We Preach? Real Vampires’ Fears of Coming out of the Coffin to Social Works and Helping Professionals” and it was published in the journal Critical Social Work.
Most think of vampires as Bela Lugosi’s performance as Dracula in the 1931 film. Nowadays, Edward Cullen from the “Twilight” series has been the poster child for modern vampires.
ISU social work professor D.J. Williams, though, said neither are real vampires. He’s been working with the vampire community for nearly a decade. The key feature of real vampires is they believe they need to take in “subtle energy” to maintain physical, psychological and spiritual health.
“They may or may not be interested in vampire myths and stories,” said Williams. “Some are, some aren’t, but it’s not about that. It’s all about energy.”
The study asked 11 people who have identified as vampires for some time if they felt comfortable sharing their identity with a helping professional. The results were presented through poetic snippets to showcase the raw emotion of the participants in the study.
There seemed to be a consensus.
“The answer was no, (they) wouldn’t do that for fear of being stereotyped, misjudged, misunderstood and those kinds of things,” said Williams.
After analyzing the results, Williams saw this fear could cross into other identities. He determined there needs to be a more critical approach.
“It’s real key that we have more education and training on new types of identities,” he said.
At Gateway Counseling, a counselor says alternative identities don’t come up often.
“It’s not usually going to be mentioned. Lots of times I’m aware of it, but it’s just not the issue they’re coming to counseling for,” said counselor Corey Richardson.
If they do come up, however, Richardson won’t ignore it.
“It’s my responsibility to refer them to someone who specializes in that,” he said.
Williams said more alternative identities can surface in the future.
