Pigs Eat Wolves: Going into Partnership With Your Dark Side

by Charles Bates

Expanded edition! A radical fairy tale for adults to help face the fears that consume us. The Three Little Pigs is a story of your own transformation. Which little pig are you? Who is your wolf? What does it say about your own past, present, future? "This book is excellent." - Marie Louis von Franz.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Self Help

148 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jann · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book uses the story of the three little pigs to illustrate the various stages of mental maturity that people go through. The first little pig faces the world with all the tales his mother has told him still intact and so he is overcome by the wolf who blows his house of straw down. The second little pig has developed a more advanced approach when he builds his house of wood, but the wolf still manages to gobble him down when he blows the wooden house down. The third little pig has matured even beyond the second pig and builds his house of bricks, which the wolf (i.e. all the pitfalls and calamities that a person encounters in life) is unable to blow down. The wolf changes his strategies but the interpretation of the story shows that the pig (representing a fully mature and emotionally balanced person) is also able to adapt his methods and so, foils the wolf's plans.

This part of the book is quite clear and understandable and of course it is a desirable thing to be able to mature sufficiently to face all life's ups and downs. What I didn't gain from the book is how one is supposed to achieve this by facing or accepting your own 'wolf/dark side'. At times the wolf was described as something external and then in the next sentence it somehow becomes part of oneself.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really nice and quick exploration of Jung's archetype of the "shadow" from within the metaphor of the myth of the three little pigs and the wolf. I came for the Jung, Gestalt references, and Robert Bly. I left with a better understanding of my current development as a human. I can clearly see first and second pig thinking as I look on my story (and of course pockets of them still need to be integrated). I am somewhere in between third pig and the butter churn today.

[Rod White · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admire Jungian folks who take archetypal literature and expound upon it. This book riffs on the Three Little Pigs and in the course provides some very useful insight on human development. It is mostly meditating on "the shadow" (that wolf) and how to integrate as a true self. I enjoyed the ride. I also wrote 2022's Christmas story based on it. https://soundcloud.com/drrodwhite/the...

[Rachelreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this book is a bit misleading. The "dark side" it is referring to is the Jungian shadow, which is much easier to deny than to integrate. But as this little gem of a book demonstrates, it is by examining what lies in that shadow (underlying root causes behind entrenched negative habits, for instance), that you can glean golden insights that enable real change. This is a simplified summary of very insightful book.

[Roger Easson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wierd little book I read only because Robert Bly had contributed an afterwards to it. This is a Jungian text about how to enter into partnership with your dark side featuring as you might have guessed the folk tale of the three little pigs.

It has a certain charm about it and makes an interesting argument.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I cannot remember where I bought this, or why. But if you ever wanted to read an in-depth, psychological analysis of "The Three Little Pigs" as it relates to growing up and discovering how to live with your own dark side, this is the book for you.

[Judi Poulson]

It's a metaphor about the Three Little Pigs story.
Good food for thought about being all you can be and not denying your "dark" side.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A study led by our Yoga instructor. The study will go on for several months, with weekly Zoom sessions. Be sure to read also the Afterward by Robert Bly.