Windigo psychosis: psychodynamic, cultural, and social factors in aberrant behavior.

Although wendigo cannibalism is unique to the northern Algonkians, the psychodynamic factors that produce it are general. The differential occurrence of the disorder is explained in terms of the northern Algonkian emphasis on following inner promptings, the absence of cultural alternatives, and in terms of the nature of interaction in the particular bands for which cannibalism was reported.