ABSTRACT
“The Three Little Pigs” is a story that begins when these good pigs are sent out into the world by their depleted mother to seek their fortune. The boys leave home prematurely, with boyishly polite manners, wanting to be good little pigs with a minimal capacity to protect themselves (Steel 1994). Consequently, psychologically the story is more about the building of defensive structures and less about the seeking of fortunes. We see the obsessive compulsive character structure portrayed symbolically in the Third Little Pig, who works hard with great precision so that he is safely encapsulated in his sturdy brick house, which protects the developing ego from the wolf at the door. The less rigid defenses, the straw house and the stick house built by the first two little pigs, were simply not enough to protect the good little pigs, the developing ego, from the wolf — the life of the body, affect and especially aggression. We can learn something about obsessive-compulsive character structure from the nature of the brick house. First, bricks are made with earth baked dry; affect is extracted from life. Second, the dried out matter which remains is methodically placed, brick by brick, with mathematical precision. The bricks themselves are firmly cemented into place. This is one solid defense. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315811901/65bf8a11-1749-4820-87ae-6bbdb6ac4b0b/content/figu5_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>
