The wild man is an enduring archetypal figure worldwide, from Enkidu in Gilgamesh, to the Greek god Pan (worshipped in glens and woods), the Green Man in England, and Bigfoot and the Sasquatch in the US.
Today’s guest, Jungian analyst Mike Box, has a long-standing interest in this archetype and in male psychology, reflected in the 8-foot wild man statue he keeps in his waiting room.
The archetype of the wild man compensates for a currently impoverished view of the masculine: stoicism and endurance without emotional expression or self-disclosure. In striving to conform to this cultural ideal, many men disown vital aspects of themselves and find themselves feeling lost, diminished and disconnected.
For some, the wild man archetype constellates negatively, emerging in dangerous or reckless behavior. When engaged consciously, however, the wild man can bring back what has been pushed out of awareness, much as the wild woman does in Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run with the Wolves.
“When a contemporary man looks down into his psyche, he may, if conditions are right, find under the water of his soul, lying in an area no one has visited for a long time, an ancient hairy man (Robert Bly, Iron John: A Book About Men).
In Robert Bly’s Iron John, the wild man initiates a young prince into the parts of himself that have been exiled in service of cultural norms. Allowing ourselves to experience our own wildness, as imaged by Bigfoot’s ability to live in nature, can restore us to a more whole version of ourselves.
Our Guest
Mike Box is a licensed professional counselor and Jungian analyst from Madison, Mississippi. His work sits at the intersection of depth psychology, trauma, and the long arc of life. He helps people make sense of what has happened to them and who they are becoming, and also writes and speaks on these themes for professional and public audiences. Mike is the seminar coordinator for the Memphis-Atlanta Jung Seminar. He has a private practice called Out of the Box Therapy.
The Dream We Analyze
It starts from a sense of longing for inspiration after a long drought… From there, I begin to write on the ground, which is green tile, though I’m outdoors. I write with my finger but it appears like black paint, and I write without thinking and without stopping, one word after another, words coming out like stream-of-consciousness poetry. As I write, I’m moving in patterns, so the sentences aren’t straight lines, but form patterns, and gradually I’m realizing that the words are also creating a picture, when viewed from high above, so it’s not just poetry, but visual art. I also realize that the words won’t be permanent, but eventually washed out by the rain, or people stepping on it. But I carry on despite this. Eventually, people start to notice. And the words change, becoming a story. And not just words, but little pictures I’m drawing with the flick of a wrist, an apple, a tiny bear, etc. And as I grow my audience, they begin to recognize the story as Harry Potter. And this inspires a whole Harry Potter-themed Mardi Gras krewe to form around it. Meanwhile, JK Rowling has become UNinspired by Harry Potter and decides to write a new novel in an invented language, one of strange grunts and utterances, a la some of James Joyce’s later work. The world is perplexed and it is not well-received. As to my own work, I, too, grow restless, especially as I realize I’m just re-writing Harry Potter. So as the parade continues around me, I notice a woman with a vintage yellow wooden skateboard, and I offer to buy it off her on the spot. She accepts and I ride off, determined to not stop moving until I’m far far away, in another country where no one knows me, and where I can start all over again.
Resources Discussed in this Episode
- Learn more about Mike Box on his website.
- Read the tale of Nesoowa and the Chenoo.
- The Epic of Gilgamesh
- Robert Bly, Iron John: A Book About Men
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves.
Related Episodes
If you’ve already listened to our episode on the wild man archetype, you might also enjoy these related episodes:
