windigo

noun

1. (mythology) A malevolent, violent, cannibal spirit found in Anishinaabe, Ojibwe, and Cree mythology, which inhabits the body of a living person and possesses him or her to commit murder.

2. A psychological condition specific to some Native American groups, in which a person (in fever-induced delusions) believes that he or she is possessed by a cannibalistic wendigo spirit, or in which society hysterically believes a person to be so possessed.