Women Who Run With the Wolves: A Book for the Broken and Ready to Heal

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]By the dawn of the 20th century, there are literally over a thousand approaches to psychotherapy. Some of which are revisions of the historical methods while others took an entirely different path but, for practical reasons, the most known method is the Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, sometimes together with Pharmacotherapy. It is an evidence-based practice, meaning, it makes use of well-thought-out and well-executed scientific researches to treat one’s mental health issues which makes it the most medically evaluated method. CBT works on the assumption that thought distortion and reduced adaptive behaviors are the key players in the perpetuation of mental disorders. CBT creates or changes one’s behaviors, cognitions and emotions toward a particular problem that is related to the patient’s mental disorder with the goal of reducing its symptoms. Another reason why it is popular is that it is inexpensive and because of the relatively short time needed for the treatment.

However, CBT focuses too closely on one’s ability to change how they think, behave and feel on certain things and on very specific problems rather than digging deeper into the underlying problems. It fails to consider many essential factors such as one’s personal history and family background. It doesn’t give space for a personal quest and emotional reflection. This is when the importance of dealing with the unconscious enters the big picture.

Psychosis and neurosis, in Jungian psychology, stems from the blocked or imbalanced relationship with the unconscious mind. The unconscious is those that which happens involuntarily – cognition, memories, biases, drives. It is believed to be the most powerful part of the psyche because it controls and influences the conscious mind, one’s personality as a whole. If we dig even deeper into our unconscious, we will find out that we all share similar patterns and characteristics with other people who are called the collective unconscious. It is made up by instincts and by archetypes. Archetypes are the universal mythic characters from folklore, legends, mythologies that we unconsciously inhabit to represent our deepest emotional motifs.

Following the ancient tradition of healing through storytelling, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D., published 25 years ago Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype. With over 19 stories from different cultural backgrounds – Spain, Mexico, Hungary, Navajo, Guatemala, Japan, and Tibet – passed from the earliest generation to the modern generation through word of mouth, inevitably changing along the way, Estés remained as true as possible to the original version. As she noted, all these versions still bear the essence of the tale; they all still carry within them the Wild Woman archetype. Written with great passion, honest reflection, and poetic tone, Estés deconstructs each element of each story to construct (and reconstruct) La Mujer Grande to guide her in reclaiming her lost power, passion, and creativity.

Estés uses the term “wild” not to denote an uncontrolled or unruly woman. No. The “Wild” Woman is she who returns to her natural life – her instincts intact, her femininity fully embraced, her decisions culturally unshackled. And no, this is not a book on feminism, not even on cultural feminism which embraces the feminine nature, because this goes beyond logic used by this noble social movement. Logic doesn’t usually work well with something mysterious and unexplainable. It is limited. It cannot fully participate in the discussions about the unconscious, the Amaterasu Omikami. This book talks about the luz del abyss, the voice within that every woman needs to start listening to.

The Wild Woman, the feminine instinctive nature, has been misused, abused and injured. Estés reveals the predators of the female psyche: naivety of masked dangers, addiction to anything that resembles a pulsating life, and estrangement from the natural self.  She also unveiled some of the implicit traps that poison the soul even more such as surrounding one’s self with the wrong kind of support system – those who also bleed from the same wounds but have no genuine longing for healing.

After being aware of those that block and imbalance our relationship with our unconscious, the Humana del Niebla, Estés doesn’t abandon us just yet. The book not only gives brutally honest self-realization and warnings – in Estés’ gentle, motherly yet passionate voice – but also hope that the Wild Woman is not someone who is far from reach. We are constantly reminded in every chapter that the Wild Woman is within us. It is in us. She is patiently waiting for us to call out for her. She is not asleep; she is fully aware. She will guide us back to our passionate and creative life, to our powerful self.

I highly recommend this book to those who are gradually losing the vibrancy in their lives, to those who feel trapped in any way, to those who need strength to assert themselves. This book is my personal bible; I have developed a personal connection with it. Some chapters of this book, as a matter of fact, made me cry that I had to take a break from it. I highly recommend this book to those who are broken and ready to heal.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]