Wolves and wilderness: A mythological and psychological approach

This dissertation investigates the transformation and the impact of human projections on the well-being of wolves and wilderness. In conjunction, it examines the importance of wilderness to the human psyche.; From mythological and psychological perspectives, this inquiry seeks, through myths, fairy tales, and dreams, to explore attitudes toward wolves from ancient times to the present. A summary of Jung's concept of the human unconscious leads to an examination of shadow and projection as applied to wolves and wildernesses as well as to a sampling of recent dreams of wolves, dreams that seem to point to a new awareness of the necessity of both wolves and wilderness to the human psyche.; It becomes clear that neither wolves nor wilderness can exist while humans consider them evil. Nor can a romantic perspective allow either to thrive. While myths, legends, and fairytales inform us of the human---wolf relationship over the centuries, only an unbiased view---one that at the same time acknowledges the interdependence of humans and the rest of the natural world---will allow that natural world to flourish.; In the midst of this study it became apparent to me that wolves and forests need each other, that one cannot properly exist without the other. From Aldo Leopold's time forward, scientists have shown that forests without major predators like wolves or mountain lions become overbrowsed by animals whose only remaining predator is man, and that overbrowsed forests cannot produce healthy flora. Thus the forest itself suffers from the absence of wolves. For their part, wolves must have miles and miles of habitat to support their packs, and wolves will only be allowed to live where forests can grow and humans permit them.; But not only do wolves and forests need each other: the human psyche seems to require both in order to acknowledge its own inner wilderness. Whether or not one actually enters the forested wilderness or hears the howl of a wolf, knowledge that contact with wild animals and wild places is possible allows us to embrace the wildness in ourselves.