Wendigo-psychosis: A culture-specific disorder, which entails an intense craving for human flesh and fear of becoming a cannibal. In some indigenous cultures, environmental destruction and insatiable greed are seen as manifestations of Wendigo psychosis.

I recalled what Mack had said about New York having a wendigo spirit all its own. In extending that concept, or widening its umbrella, you might say that Wendigo-psychosis was the corrosive rot at the foundational base of American culture and society. That progress was nothing more than progressive illness and spiritual deterioration. The wendigo was not just some horrific, ice-hearted creature that stalked winter woods of the north, but a poison and virus that circulated freely beyond the parameters of its designated geography. And carried people into the dark inner sanctum of their own lonely winter woods.