ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of analytic thinking about the wolf, and by excursions into culture, myth, symbolism, children’s stories, and tales of werewolves and feral children. Through myth and legend, and varying degrees of familiarity, feral children populate people’s imagination and history books. A feral life is implied, but there is no evidence of his being raised by animals. Lycanthropy as a psychiatric syndrome is defined as the rare delusion of being a wolflike creature with the cravings attributed to the wolf. The psychoanalytic wolf is a diverse discourse, touching on phenomenology, symbol, myth, metaphor, symptom, development, fantasy, and identification, and subject to subtle sociocultural influence. Technical innovation in mental health professionals consulting rooms involves shared creation and discovery by analyst and analysand–of a veritable wolfscape. Indian folk tales refer most often to the jackal, a smaller animal than the European wolf, usually portrayed as cunning, sly, or wise.
