Women Who Run With the Wolves review
A book of myths and analysis that people either carry for life or abandon at chapter three.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes's collection of myths and folk tales with Jungian commentary, built around the Wild Woman archetype.
Check price on AmazonSpecifications
| Spec | Detail |
|---|---|
| Author | Clarissa Pinkola Estes, a Jungian analyst and cantadora |
| Publisher | Ballantine Books |
| Subject | Myth, folk tale and the Wild Woman archetype |
| Structure | Stories followed by extended commentary |
| Length | Long, several hundred pages |
Specifications above come from the publisher's listing. Treat pricing as approximate, since Amazon pricing moves.
What it does well
- The story analysis is the best thing in it. Estés takes a folk tale apart with real care and shows what it is doing, which is a skill and a pleasure to read.
- It gives female experience the mythic treatment that Campbell's framework largely reserves for male heroes, which is precisely the gap it fills.
- The chapter on the Skeleton Woman and the material on intuition are widely quoted for good reason.
- It is a book people return to over years rather than finish once, and it rewards that.
- The Wild Woman framing gives readers a way to name a self that was trained out of them, which is exactly what shadow work is about.
Where it falls short
- The prose is a genuine barrier. It is incantatory, repetitive by design, and readers who want argument rather than invocation find it exhausting.
- It is long, and it does not build. You can read chapters out of order, which is a strength and also means there is no momentum carrying you forward.
- Estés's use and sourcing of folk material has been questioned, and some tales are retold rather than reproduced. Read it as her retelling, not as ethnography.
- The essentialist framing of the feminine will not sit well with every reader, and it is fair to push back on it while still valuing the readings.
- It is myth and analysis, not therapy. Readers working with trauma need professional support alongside any book, this one included.
What owners report
Reader reports on this book are among the most polarised of any title here. A very large group describe it as formative, quote from it years later and return to it repeatedly. Another large group describe bouncing off the prose within a few chapters.
The recurring practical advice from readers who love it is not to read it straight through: take one story and its commentary at a time, with gaps. That advice appears often enough to be worth following.
Who it suits
- Readers who like myth and can enjoy slow, dense prose.
- Anyone who found Campbell's hero framework male-centred and wanted the counterpart.
- People who prefer story to instruction.
Who should skip it
- Readers who want a practical book with exercises.
- Anyone impatient with poetic prose.
- People wanting rigorously sourced folklore scholarship.
Alternatives worth considering
The same archetypal project aimed at masculine psychology, much shorter and considerably more schematic. Less beautiful and far quicker to read, and we compare the two directly.
Check price on AmazonCampbell's monomyth is the framework whose treatment of women Estés is implicitly responding to. Reading them together is more interesting than reading either alone.
Check price on AmazonCommon questions
Is Women Who Run With the Wolves hard to read?
For many readers, yes. The prose is deliberately incantatory and repetitive, which some find hypnotic and others find exhausting. The most common successful approach is one story and its commentary at a time, with gaps, rather than reading it straight through.
Is it only for women?
The archetype and the material are framed around female experience, and plenty of male readers find the story analysis valuable regardless. If you want the equivalent project aimed at masculine psychology, King, Warrior, Magician, Lover is the standard companion and our comparison covers both.
Are the folk tales accurate?
They are Estés's retellings, and her sourcing has been questioned by folklorists. Read the tales as her versions rather than as documentary records of specific traditions. The analysis is the substance of the book and it stands on its own terms.
What is the Wild Woman archetype?
Estés's name for an instinctual, knowing self that she argues gets suppressed by socialisation: the part that recognises danger, sets limits and knows what it wants. Whether you accept the archetypal framing or not, the thing being described is recognisable, which is why the book has lasted.
Is this a shadow work book?
Not explicitly, and it works as one. Much of it is about recovering what was trained out of you, which is the same territory shadow work covers, approached through story rather than through exercises. Our guide on shadow work for relationships covers the practical end.
Keep reading
- Women Who Run vs King Warrior Magician Lover
- Seven types of shadow archetypes
- The Hero with a Thousand Faces review
- Aion review
This review draws on published specifications, manufacturer figures and the consensus of verified owner reviews. We have not tested this product ourselves, and we say so rather than implying otherwise. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.