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38th out of 575 books
—
742 voters
Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype
UPDATED, WITH NEW MATERIAL BY THE AUTHOR"WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES isn't just another book. It is a gift of profound insight, wisdom, and love. An oracle from one who knows."--Alice WalkerWithin every woman there lives a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. She is the Wild Woman, who represents the instinctual nature o...more
Paperback, 608 pages
Published
November 27th 1996
by Ballantine Books
(first published 1992)
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When I worked at Ballantine Books in the early to mid-1990s, this was by far the most successful book the house had ever published (it probably still is). I couldn't get over it -- this piece of shit was a runaway best-seller? Overblown, overwritten, self-important, pseudo-intellectual -- what the hell was to like? And to top it off, the author acted like a complete asshole, with personality traits that matched her book to a T. Her visits to the office were ludicrous; she used to prance around,...more
Mar 15, 2011
Lamski Kikita
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
all the ladies, and some guys who can handle it
Let me just start with saying that there are two kinds of people who would NOT like this book: 1- chauvanistic men/pigs(hehe), and 2- women who are uptight with their religious and social beliefs (and the stepford housewives type).
This book is for all women, who struggled through life because of the pressures and pre-tailored expectations of their families, socieities, religious leaders, husbands, children, etc, and finally saw the light of the moon and could not fight the urge to howl (owwwwwww...more
This book is for all women, who struggled through life because of the pressures and pre-tailored expectations of their families, socieities, religious leaders, husbands, children, etc, and finally saw the light of the moon and could not fight the urge to howl (owwwwwww...more
46 likes · like · see review
I have read this book a few times. I pick it up from time to time to look over a chapter of this or that - it affected the way I think about other fables and even the movies. I am half convinced that the end of the Wedding Crashers is really about two healthy psyches driving away together into the future, married to themselves. I was rereading this book about the same time I saw that movie.
Any woman who is interested in empowering herself will be inspired. It is a jungian read on the darkest ve...more
Any woman who is interested in empowering herself will be inspired. It is a jungian read on the darkest ve...more
23 likes · like · see review
Jan 28, 2008
Lilith
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Women everywhere. And the occasional man.
Shelves:
favorites
This book saved my life. I was seriously struggling with an enormous amount of class-related stress, centered around a completely unsuspected attack on my creative potential. After a few months of being shredded mentally and creatively by the people I'd expected to lean on for support and physically by the demands of moving to a new country, I was at a horrible place, alternating between periods of blind rage and near suicidal depression, and for the first time in my life I was watching my abili...more
معرفش ليه طول مانا فاتحة الكتاب أوبرا كارمن في وداني خصوصاً الجزء ده وضحكة كارمن مسيطرة ع الموقف :D:D
نوع من التمرد الممتع ربما :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lspRhX...
5 likes · like · see review
I learned a lot from this book. The big ideas for me were:
1. "even if the mother vine is damaged, it doesn't mean her children are"
and
2. "it will never hurt you to go after something you want or something that is calling to you"
The books is sort of a slow-read, but I find the author generous and familiar and enjoyed the way she reconstructed women's psychology through myth.
It's good to have new (complete?) stories in my mind as well.
1. "even if the mother vine is damaged, it doesn't mean her children are"
and
2. "it will never hurt you to go after something you want or something that is calling to you"
The books is sort of a slow-read, but I find the author generous and familiar and enjoyed the way she reconstructed women's psychology through myth.
It's good to have new (complete?) stories in my mind as well.
Juicy and satisfying, this book is for any woman who feels an urge to connect with wild and ancient concepts of what it means to be female: messy, raw, and full of luminously passionate creative energy. If this book doesn't make you want to howl out loud, I'm not sure what will!
نساء يركضن مع الذئاب ...
يُجسد هذا الكتاب فكرة سعي المرأة للتصالح مع ذاتها الوحشية، الذات الوحشية هي الكائن الحي الذي يعيش فينا، يدفعنا للتقدم و هي الروح الحارسة التي تعتني بنا، هي ما يدفعنا للقيام بالمغامرات و التحديات للقيان بالإنجازات لتي نريدها.
الذات الشافية التي تقف بجانبنا لتخلق ولادة الحياة من جديد بعد أن يحل فينا الموت " موت مرحلة ما"(دورة الحياة/الموت /الحياة، بعد كل تجربة قاسية نمر بها هناك ولادة لحياة جديدة). كلارسيا بنكولا تتخذ رواية القصة كدواء و علاج للجروح و الندوب التي مررنا بها ن...more
يُجسد هذا الكتاب فكرة سعي المرأة للتصالح مع ذاتها الوحشية، الذات الوحشية هي الكائن الحي الذي يعيش فينا، يدفعنا للتقدم و هي الروح الحارسة التي تعتني بنا، هي ما يدفعنا للقيام بالمغامرات و التحديات للقيان بالإنجازات لتي نريدها.
الذات الشافية التي تقف بجانبنا لتخلق ولادة الحياة من جديد بعد أن يحل فينا الموت " موت مرحلة ما"(دورة الحياة/الموت /الحياة، بعد كل تجربة قاسية نمر بها هناك ولادة لحياة جديدة). كلارسيا بنكولا تتخذ رواية القصة كدواء و علاج للجروح و الندوب التي مررنا بها ن...more
7 likes · like · see review
Poetry! I so enjoy Estes's use of language and imagery and the various interpretations of stories and the universal and profound themes hidden underneath the layers of seemingly simple stories. I think this book is very important for women to read, especially for women who must protect and guide their daughters. My favorite story is Sealskin, Soulskin about a young seal/woman who loses her self in someone else's dream and finally finds the courage to pursue her dream and enrich her life.
As seen on The Cynical Bookworm.
This is one of the books for which I held expectations of an entirely different nature than the real thing. I was hoping for an insightful collection of traditional lore with women protagonists - and in many ways it was this exact thing. I was delighted by the discovery of new folklore, but this is where my delight ended. The author offers her feminist and/or psychoanalytical interpretations of the folk tales, sometimes interesting sometimes slightly over-the-top....more
This is one of the books for which I held expectations of an entirely different nature than the real thing. I was hoping for an insightful collection of traditional lore with women protagonists - and in many ways it was this exact thing. I was delighted by the discovery of new folklore, but this is where my delight ended. The author offers her feminist and/or psychoanalytical interpretations of the folk tales, sometimes interesting sometimes slightly over-the-top....more
has done elegantly and powerfully before. But it gets too consumed in discovering inner powers and unleashing creativities... I know this can be enlightening to women readers, especially if they're young (and love stories or lean towards the more spiritual), but assumptions such as a de natura women's intuition are not my cup of tea. It can do a good job igniting imagination and building a Symbolic for women who feel they might need it, but only as long as the reader doesn't stop at this book and continues to expand literary horizons.
. I suggest that you pair it with something by 
, to smooth out its rough edges.
Sep 17, 2007
Mounia
added it
Very Interesting book, have to say I had to put it down many times just because it need some deep thinking following some passages.
It linkes old cultures to the modern pshyche of women.
Incredible..I definitely recommend it!!
It linkes old cultures to the modern pshyche of women.
Incredible..I definitely recommend it!!
I am really loving this book, it covers so much of what I already believed in/felt (and I'm not even finished but wanted to write something even if it be incoherent) such as listening to your intuition, instincts, the life/death/life cycle knowing something good can and will arise from something bad, but reading it in such a way with folk stories followed by analyses, embellish the ideas and make them more solid in my mind and unwavering, knowing others believe the same helps and allows these be...more
3 likes · like · see review
Aug 08, 2009
Julie Suzanne
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Emily
Recommended to Julie by:
Jack
My neighbor is in a "Women Who Run With the Wolves" book group, and has been highly inspired by it. I didn't think I was too interested, but he let me borrow the companion audio recording, and I did enjoy it, mostly because of Estes's intensely pleasing voice and style of speaking and storytelling. Honestly, I'd love to hire her to talk to me all the time; I've never heard anyone more gifted in the art. Her soothing voice would have been a perfect casting for Meggie's voice in Inkheart (the girl...more
Oct 03, 2008
Eva St. Clair
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
soul searchers, fairy tale lovers, fearless men
Recommended to Eva by:
Jane St. Clair
Shelves:
itwasgood
As a person who has always loved fairy tales, I read this book very slowly and carefully, enjoying every page. The author's explanations, which incorporate Jungian psychology and principles of women's intuition, enriched and deepened my appreciation for the ancient feminine and the lost art of teaching through fable, myth, and allegory.
Dr. Estes is a very effusive person, which comes across in her writing and can be at times overwhelming. She is quite incapable of using fewer than 3 synonyms st...more
Dr. Estes is a very effusive person, which comes across in her writing and can be at times overwhelming. She is quite incapable of using fewer than 3 synonyms st...more
A brilliant reference book for anyone - not just women, as it opens one up to the inner journey we are all on and uses creative maps that we can all relate to as humans . I can open it at a page , find the story/ myth she is relating in the chapter and find that I can work with or just reflect on the stor and where it sits for me at the time .
Highly recommend !!
Highly recommend !!
This was a GREAT book. I really enjoyed reading it. I love how Estes blends both her traditional heritage as a cantadora (keeper of the old stories) and a Jungian psychoanalyst to create such a rich complex for exploring the human psyche. Her observations of the divine feminine or Wild Woman archetype was joy to read and apply to my own life. It's a treatise on how to reclaim your "inner knowing" or the “knowing of the soul,”as a human and as a woman. Women in particular fall victim to social no...more
2 likes · like · see review
This is one of the great feminist-lit books that all women should read, over and over again.
I was 17 or so when I first heard of the book. I was intrigued by it, being a Greek mythology buff and fairy-tale loving kid growing up (Hans Christian Anderson, Brothers Grimm, love love loved!). But the concept of women "running" with wolves frankly sounded "artsy"; at the time "artsy" wasn't acceptable. Fast forward a few years later, and I pick up my roommates copy. I am now in early 20s, have a job,...more
I was 17 or so when I first heard of the book. I was intrigued by it, being a Greek mythology buff and fairy-tale loving kid growing up (Hans Christian Anderson, Brothers Grimm, love love loved!). But the concept of women "running" with wolves frankly sounded "artsy"; at the time "artsy" wasn't acceptable. Fast forward a few years later, and I pick up my roommates copy. I am now in early 20s, have a job,...more
Women Who Run With the Wolves has been my dear companion for many years now. A most precious book; a real pearl in an ocean of literature. It is one of the most important books I have ever read as a woman. A writer of soul, Clarissa seems to gaze out from the pages of this book and look inside the hearts of women all over the world. Incredible. When reading some of the stories I feel both enlightened and terrified. It's scary stuff! But I love books that dig deep under the surface and bring the...more
Women Who Run With the Wolves is a book with impressive following, and after reading it, I can understand why. It's like a mixture of fairytales, self-help book and chicklit. However, one cannot underestimate the book dispite the seemingly frivolous labels. There were stories in this book that I really correleated with, that helped me to see my motives and reason why I have behaved the way I have. On the other hand there are also lots of other stories I don't agree with. But it is a book every y...more
Questo libro appassionante è consigliato alle donne, ma anche agli uomini che amano “correre con le donne che corrono coi lupi”, non solo l’8 marzo
Il mito della donna selvaggia in “Donne che corrono coi lupi”…..
E’ voce diffusa e in parte vera che la solitudine fa paura, qualcuno asserisce alle donne soprattutto; ma altro giustamente dissente, perché “L’esercizio della solitudine intenzionale”, scrive un’autrice (analista, già direttrice del Carl Gustav Jung Center di Denver, dottore in etnologia...more
Il mito della donna selvaggia in “Donne che corrono coi lupi”…..
E’ voce diffusa e in parte vera che la solitudine fa paura, qualcuno asserisce alle donne soprattutto; ma altro giustamente dissente, perché “L’esercizio della solitudine intenzionale”, scrive un’autrice (analista, già direttrice del Carl Gustav Jung Center di Denver, dottore in etnologia...more
I've been reading this book on and off for the past several years. When I first purchased it at the recommendation of my eldest sister, I could see right away why it intrigued her; the combination of "cantadora" story-telling by the author (who happens also to be a Jungian psychoanalyst) and insights into why women do what they do and how they can learn from mythological archetypes is always interesting. There are times I feel the author takes her myths so seriously, though, that I find myself a...more
Jungian psychoanalytic theory applied to folktales and fairy tales from around the world. Yes? Yes.
I want to carry copies of this book around and hand them out, proselytorily, to everyone woman I encounter who feels confined, constrained, and soul-sick. This book has helped me to reconnect with my intuition, reevaluate what it means for me to live authentically, and reimagine what my life can look like when I live it wildly and freely. It really has been a gift to me.
There is lots of gender esse...more
I want to carry copies of this book around and hand them out, proselytorily, to everyone woman I encounter who feels confined, constrained, and soul-sick. This book has helped me to reconnect with my intuition, reevaluate what it means for me to live authentically, and reimagine what my life can look like when I live it wildly and freely. It really has been a gift to me.
There is lots of gender esse...more
4 likes · like · see review
Another reviewer summed it up: this book's cover was misleading! I know that authors often have nothing to do with how their books are advertised, and perhaps I should have read the introduction before I bought it or something, but it *still* isn't fair that I wasted my money on a book chock-full of Jungian psychoanalysis when what is advertised and what I expected was a book about the literary and mythological archetype of the wild woman. What's worse, the book isn't so much about Jungian psych...more
Here's the deal on this book.
1) It is all too easy to make fun or roll one's eyes or be actually pretty nasty about it, because it's obviously got a ridiculously embarassing title. I personally got the book as a cheerful joke from my dad one Christmas, and I thought to myself, "gag me!"
2) But: Once I read it, I realized how smart this book is. (Eg, I learned the ever-useful term piloerection here.) What this book is is a master-key to the pictorial language that our right brain "speaks," (via dr...more
1) It is all too easy to make fun or roll one's eyes or be actually pretty nasty about it, because it's obviously got a ridiculously embarassing title. I personally got the book as a cheerful joke from my dad one Christmas, and I thought to myself, "gag me!"
2) But: Once I read it, I realized how smart this book is. (Eg, I learned the ever-useful term piloerection here.) What this book is is a master-key to the pictorial language that our right brain "speaks," (via dr...more
This is one of those books I hope I'll read again, maybe in five years or so. The reason is that I'm sure I would have gotten something different from it at 20 than I did at 25, at 50 than I did at 55. If it had been published then and I'd first read it at 20, I can see how it would have been helpful to make it a ritual every few years of my adult life. Every woman has lived at least one of these stories. (Some of them men will have lived as well.) These are the stories that our life paths tunne...more
Should be required reading for women of all ages. Apparently, for a little bit, the book was some kind of cult classic that was being passed around from woman to woman. Eh. It's still a book that women like to give to their friends.
I like storytelling, myths, legends. Blah blah. I don't know if it's possible to read this book and not see yourself. It's long. One of my friends told me she read it at night before bed for about a year until she finished it.
Well worth the read.
I like storytelling, myths, legends. Blah blah. I don't know if it's possible to read this book and not see yourself. It's long. One of my friends told me she read it at night before bed for about a year until she finished it.
Well worth the read.
Reading this book and feeling a connection to my mom and to all womanhood was a wonderful way to spend this weekend. Clarissa Pinkola Estés touched on the importance of growing into ourselves and trusting ourselves. She talked about what to do when we have been diverted from the path to ourselves by our families, culture, and choices. I could feel this book feeding my newest novel (the one I’m not ready to talk about). I could feel it feeding me, too. I was learning about my spirit and also my p...more
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I can only make it through 4 or 5 pages at a time, but find it amazing and way more relevant now at just about 40 than I did at 19 or so when it was assigned in college. I would like to meet the 40+ year old woman who does not heavily relate with much of it and just marvel at her good fortune.
At 19 it was a book of women's mythology, at 40 it is a self-help book of the best kind; helps you actually remember what you need help with, where you were going, and why. It also helps you identify forces...more
At 19 it was a book of women's mythology, at 40 it is a self-help book of the best kind; helps you actually remember what you need help with, where you were going, and why. It also helps you identify forces...more
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قرأته قبل سنوات ولم أستطع تكملته لاحساسي أن المؤلفة تثرثر أكثر من اللازم. الآن أجد نفس هذه الثرثرة استرسالاً رائعًا يضع القارئ شعوريًا فيما تريد قوله المؤلفة. ساعد على ذلك الجودة والمجهود الواضحان في الترجمة. الكتاب رحلة عشوائية، أو هكذا ستشعر بها كقارئ، لن تعرف نهايتها إلا مع اتمام الكتاب. ربما تجد علامات لذلك من حيث الأفكارالتي تريد الكاتبة قولها، لكن شعوريًا ونفسيًا ثمة بناء يبنى على مهل تحتاج الإبتعاد عنه لتراه كاملاً حين تفرغ من القراءة. فترتيب الفصول مثلاً كان مبعث سؤالي. هل يمكن اعادته بط...more
I bought this book years ago at a garage sale and never could get into it. Until one day I was walking past and had the urge to flip through it. I ended up reading the whole thing. I do agree with both sides of the love/hate reviews as it is hard to read and the author does seem to be a bit over the top but I read it at a time in my life that I really needed a bit of a pep talk. You really need to be mentally ready for this book.
I think this book is for people going through some issues in their...more
I think this book is for people going through some issues in their...more
2 likes · like · see review
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Le club littérair...: Femmes qui courent avec les loups | 3 | 5 | Mar 15, 2013 02:03pm | |
| Full Of passion and Inspiration | 12 | 40 | Jan 30, 2013 01:29am | |
| Bookies Club with...: Women Who Run with the Wolves | 7 | 12 | Oct 01, 2012 02:59pm |
an American poet, psychoanalyst and post-trauma specialist who was raised in now nearly vanished oral and ethnic traditions. She is a first-generation American who grew up in a rural village, population 600, near the Great Lakes. Of Mexican mestiza and majority Magyar and minority Swabian tribal heritages, she comes from immigrant and refugee families who could not read or write, or who did so hal...more
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“There is probably no better or more reliable measure of whether a woman has spent time in ugly duckling status at some point or all throughout her life than her inability to digest a sincere compliment. Although it could be a matter of modesty, or could be attributed to shyness- although too many serious wounds are carelessly written off as "nothing but shyness"- more often a compliment is stuttered around about because it sets up an automatic and unpleasant dialogue in the woman's mind.
If you say how lovely she is, or how beautiful her art is, or compliment anything else her soul took part in, inspired, or suffused, something in her mind says she is undeserving and you, the complimentor, are an idiot for thinking such a thing to begin with. Rather than understand that the beauty of her soul shines through when she is being herself, the woman changes the subject and effectively snatches nourishment away from the soul-self, which thrives on being acknowledged."
"I must admit, I sometimes find it useful in my practice to delineate the various typologies of personality as cats and hens and ducks and swans and so forth. If warranted, I might ask my client to assume for a moment that she is a swan who does not realzie it. Assume also for a moment that she has been brought up by or is currently surrounded by ducks.
There is nothing wrong with ducks, I assure them, or with swans. But ducks are ducks and swans are swans. Sometimes to make the point I have to move to other animal metaphors. I like to use mice. What if you were raised by the mice people? But what if you're, say, a swan. Swans and mice hate each other's food for the most part. They each think the other smells funny. They are not interested in spending time together, and if they did, one would be constantly harassing the other.
But what if you, being a swan, had to pretend you were a mouse? What if you had to pretend to be gray and furry and tiny? What you had no long snaky tail to carry in the air on tail-carrying day? What if wherever you went you tried to walk like a mouse, but you waddled instead? What if you tried to talk like a mouse, but insteade out came a honk every time? Wouldn't you be the most miserable creature in the world?
The answer is an inequivocal yes. So why, if this is all so and too true, do women keep trying to bend and fold themselves into shapes that are not theirs? I must say, from years of clinical observation of this problem, that most of the time it is not because of deep-seated masochism or a malignant dedication to self-destruction or anything of that nature. More often it is because the woman simply doesn't know any better. She is unmothered.”
—
147 people liked it
If you say how lovely she is, or how beautiful her art is, or compliment anything else her soul took part in, inspired, or suffused, something in her mind says she is undeserving and you, the complimentor, are an idiot for thinking such a thing to begin with. Rather than understand that the beauty of her soul shines through when she is being herself, the woman changes the subject and effectively snatches nourishment away from the soul-self, which thrives on being acknowledged."
"I must admit, I sometimes find it useful in my practice to delineate the various typologies of personality as cats and hens and ducks and swans and so forth. If warranted, I might ask my client to assume for a moment that she is a swan who does not realzie it. Assume also for a moment that she has been brought up by or is currently surrounded by ducks.
There is nothing wrong with ducks, I assure them, or with swans. But ducks are ducks and swans are swans. Sometimes to make the point I have to move to other animal metaphors. I like to use mice. What if you were raised by the mice people? But what if you're, say, a swan. Swans and mice hate each other's food for the most part. They each think the other smells funny. They are not interested in spending time together, and if they did, one would be constantly harassing the other.
But what if you, being a swan, had to pretend you were a mouse? What if you had to pretend to be gray and furry and tiny? What you had no long snaky tail to carry in the air on tail-carrying day? What if wherever you went you tried to walk like a mouse, but you waddled instead? What if you tried to talk like a mouse, but insteade out came a honk every time? Wouldn't you be the most miserable creature in the world?
The answer is an inequivocal yes. So why, if this is all so and too true, do women keep trying to bend and fold themselves into shapes that are not theirs? I must say, from years of clinical observation of this problem, that most of the time it is not because of deep-seated masochism or a malignant dedication to self-destruction or anything of that nature. More often it is because the woman simply doesn't know any better. She is unmothered.”
“Sometimes the one who is running from the Life/Death/Life nature insists on thinking of love as a boon only. Yet love in its fullest form is a series of deaths and rebirths. We let go of one phase, one aspect of love, and enter another. Passion dies and is brought back. Pain is chased away and surfaces another time. To love means to embrace and at the same time to withstand many endings, and many many beginnings- all in the same relationship.”
—
111 people liked it
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