Mowgli syndrome

“Mowgli syndrome” is a term used by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty in her 1995 book Other Peoples’ Myths: The Cave of Echoes to describe mythological figures who succeed in bridging the animal and human worlds to become one with nature, a human animal, only to become trapped between the two worlds, not completely animal yet not entirely human.[1] Another literary account described this term as a birth defect that results from sexual relations between a human and a shapeshifter in animal form.[2]

It is also a rarely used descriptive term for the so-called feral children. These are individuals who are not properly socialized[3], hence, incapable of normal social interaction. They could even have limited speech ability and mental impairment or underdeveloped mental faculties.[4] Other syndromes may include fear of humans and a lack of interest in human activities.[5] The term “Mowgli syndrome”, however, is not a recognized psychological or physiological malady. The term originates from the character Mowgli, a fictional feral child from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1894).[6]