1. in folk belief and literature, the practices associated with vampires (“undead” corpses supposed to drink the blood of living beings). In the portrayal of vampirism in literature, sexual pleasure is often associated with sucking blood from another person, a representation of the “love bite.”

2. a paraphilia whereby the drinking of blood elicits sexual arousal or pleasure. Also called Renfield’s syndrome. [first described by German psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing (1840–1902); named after the lawyer and later insane follower of Dracula in the 1897 novel by Bram Stoker]

3. a rare symptom of schizophrenia, characterized by vampiric or other delusions and the drinking of blood. Both of the last two senses are also called clinical vampirism.