What is Lycanthropy?

In my work, I am often doing various searches online to find the definitions of things, or delving into a Thesaurus to give some versatility to the syntax of terribly boring reports. One of the perks of this is that I often come across pretty interesting, though trivial, bits of information. The other day I came across this word: Lycanthropy. Apparently this is a Greek word meaning "wolf-man" (lykoi anthropos) and refers to "a psychiatric state in which the patient believes he is a wolf or some nonhuman animal.
With the observation of Halloween just past, it seems all too appropriate to apply this term to what happens to many children on that day. It may be all-in-fun, but there were a few years where I dressed up as something that just felt so right (maybe it was the actor in me) that I felt quite lycanthropic (although somewhat ashamed to have embodied Bugs Bunny)! Truth be told, when I was about 8 years old, I felt quite comfortable while under the influence of what could be known as peiratês anthropos (arrr, pardon me Greek matey!).