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The Werewolf Delusion
"There can be little doubt that the werewolf as a psychic phenomenon could, did, and perhaps still does exist. What superstition, one that is a thousand years or so older than Christianity, could survive to the present day if there were not a germ of truth somewhere?"
256 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1979
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 1, 2011
I ordered this book for research because I wanted to write a couple of stories about werewolves, and I thought it was important to historically ground myself in the original legends. As far as that goes, this book served well. Woodward traces the werewolf legend from its beginnings in Scandinavia and down through history to "today" (the book was published in 1979, so it's a bit outdated).
The only real problem I had with the book is that even though it is called The Werewolf Delusion, Woodward spends several pages uncritically praising a crackpot who puts forth the theory that werewolves are the astral projection of disturbed people, in wolf form. Not only does he seem to accept this idiocy wholeheartedly, he even goes so far as to call it the best explanation of the werewolf phenomenon.
He does this in the first half, and I spent literally the entire second half of the book looking for the punchline, but it never came. It left a bad taste in my mouth, figuratively, and it made it difficult to take anything he said after that seriously.
So while it is a fairly good tour of werewolfery (and other were-beasts) through history, compiled from many good sources that came before him, and even though it has helped me in my research quite a bit (for instance, the whole 'anyone bit by a werewolf becomes a werewolf' and 'werewolves are innocent victims' parts of werewolf lore were invented entirely by Hollywood, and therefore do not belong in my stories), I am compelled to take at least one star away for his uncritical acceptance of complete and utter nonsense.
The only real problem I had with the book is that even though it is called The Werewolf Delusion, Woodward spends several pages uncritically praising a crackpot who puts forth the theory that werewolves are the astral projection of disturbed people, in wolf form. Not only does he seem to accept this idiocy wholeheartedly, he even goes so far as to call it the best explanation of the werewolf phenomenon.
He does this in the first half, and I spent literally the entire second half of the book looking for the punchline, but it never came. It left a bad taste in my mouth, figuratively, and it made it difficult to take anything he said after that seriously.
So while it is a fairly good tour of werewolfery (and other were-beasts) through history, compiled from many good sources that came before him, and even though it has helped me in my research quite a bit (for instance, the whole 'anyone bit by a werewolf becomes a werewolf' and 'werewolves are innocent victims' parts of werewolf lore were invented entirely by Hollywood, and therefore do not belong in my stories), I am compelled to take at least one star away for his uncritical acceptance of complete and utter nonsense.
June 7, 2025
This is meant to be an informative, non-fiction work. It is riddled with blatant misinformation, from simple facts to entire narratives. You will actively handicap your knowledge of werewolves by reading this; if you want an accessible work on werewolves, read Adam Douglas' The Beast Within: A History of the Werewolf.
We spend a good deal of the book repetitively haranguing over demonologists' texts, where Woodward demonstrates a complete inability to critically read anything put in front of him; all events happened as they are written, all authors are taken at their word - he believes all the witch trials involve people who did commit the murders attributed to them in the manner described, the question merely being one of whether they are actually werewolves or not.
Woodward is confounding here. First we're told, definitively, that they're simply suffering from the titular werewolf delusion - in his terms, a form of hypochondria where the patient irrationally believes they've turned into a wolf. Then, half way through, we swerve into a measured explanation that theosophical spirits exist and that werewolves are obviously demonstrating astral projection, except they're feeble-minded people who have their souls snatched by evil spirits and manifested as wolves, wolves being the literal embodiment of evil (seriously, this book has a near-hysterical attitude towards wolves); this is given the definitive explanation. Then in a short chapter we're told that, naturally, werewolves are almost entirely people who suffer from rabies, and that this completely explains the phenomenon.
The fact that none of these make any sense is irrelevant to Woodward.
When we deal with other topics - folklore, mythology, history - Woodward does not cite his sources, except for extensive quote-mining of O'Donnell (a fiction writer) and Summers. Almost all of this is taken from Baring-Gould and Summers, except Woodward pretties up what he takes with invented elaborations and schoolboy errors, jumbling it all into muddled analyses and conclusions.
Bizarrely, in the penultimate chapter, Woodward presents an anecdote he heard "on a motoring holiday in France", then paraphrases a story lifted directly from Boguet. He actually does this several more times, presenting bits of folklore obviously taken from Baring-Gould as if he travelled around Europe and heard them personally. This is somewhat fitting, because at this point you'll have been subjected to many instances of Woodward unsubtly puffing himself up with all the "people" he's "contacted" and who have "contacted" him back in the research of this book. I imagine that's why he doesn't cite anything - throughout, he clearly tries to make this book seem like a feat of research, when he's just riffing on the same few books who've done all the hard work already.
There's one final, and equally bizarre, problem - a good deal of the images have incorrect captions. I don't know if it's sloppiness or inventing information that Woodward wasn't privy to to fill the book with learned captions, but it's worth pointing out.
We spend a good deal of the book repetitively haranguing over demonologists' texts, where Woodward demonstrates a complete inability to critically read anything put in front of him; all events happened as they are written, all authors are taken at their word - he believes all the witch trials involve people who did commit the murders attributed to them in the manner described, the question merely being one of whether they are actually werewolves or not.
Woodward is confounding here. First we're told, definitively, that they're simply suffering from the titular werewolf delusion - in his terms, a form of hypochondria where the patient irrationally believes they've turned into a wolf. Then, half way through, we swerve into a measured explanation that theosophical spirits exist and that werewolves are obviously demonstrating astral projection, except they're feeble-minded people who have their souls snatched by evil spirits and manifested as wolves, wolves being the literal embodiment of evil (seriously, this book has a near-hysterical attitude towards wolves); this is given the definitive explanation. Then in a short chapter we're told that, naturally, werewolves are almost entirely people who suffer from rabies, and that this completely explains the phenomenon.
The fact that none of these make any sense is irrelevant to Woodward.
When we deal with other topics - folklore, mythology, history - Woodward does not cite his sources, except for extensive quote-mining of O'Donnell (a fiction writer) and Summers. Almost all of this is taken from Baring-Gould and Summers, except Woodward pretties up what he takes with invented elaborations and schoolboy errors, jumbling it all into muddled analyses and conclusions.
Bizarrely, in the penultimate chapter, Woodward presents an anecdote he heard "on a motoring holiday in France", then paraphrases a story lifted directly from Boguet. He actually does this several more times, presenting bits of folklore obviously taken from Baring-Gould as if he travelled around Europe and heard them personally. This is somewhat fitting, because at this point you'll have been subjected to many instances of Woodward unsubtly puffing himself up with all the "people" he's "contacted" and who have "contacted" him back in the research of this book. I imagine that's why he doesn't cite anything - throughout, he clearly tries to make this book seem like a feat of research, when he's just riffing on the same few books who've done all the hard work already.
There's one final, and equally bizarre, problem - a good deal of the images have incorrect captions. I don't know if it's sloppiness or inventing information that Woodward wasn't privy to to fill the book with learned captions, but it's worth pointing out.
March 22, 2017
I will admit right away, I did not read this book in its entirety, I just couldn't. I love books on unusual topics which is why a friend of mine gifted me this a few months back. It was a very thoughtful gift and the pictures contained within the book are amazing. However, the author's views are really what threw me. He seems to have a strong set of opinions on werewolves that he is trying to sell, as other reviewers have pointed out and I often found his views/opinions confusing or contradictory.
I'll just finish by saying again that the collection of photos and art in this book is great. While having this book on your shelves may be a good conversation starter and be a good fit for someone's unusual book collection, I consider it a really hard read to get through that might not be worth it in the end.
I'll just finish by saying again that the collection of photos and art in this book is great. While having this book on your shelves may be a good conversation starter and be a good fit for someone's unusual book collection, I consider it a really hard read to get through that might not be worth it in the end.
May 9, 2021
A book jam packed with werewolf lore, myth, legend and true-life accounts, this is a really useful book for anyone wanting a wide-ranging werewolf reference. Stars deducted for the author's views colouring the narrative and the unnecessary chapter (page) on modern werewolf merchandise!
January 18, 2016
The author has a fixed idea of what causes the werewolf phenomena and this colours everything. He happily disregards everything that doesn't fit his theory, hence a werewolf initiate removing his clothes is apparently misunderstood for an astral spirit leaving the body.
It is interesting to read some of the true stories of historical werewolves but overall the author's bias distorts it all. The science is also rather dated now, as are the cinematic references, particularly in light of Twilight and Harry Potter.
It is interesting to read some of the true stories of historical werewolves but overall the author's bias distorts it all. The science is also rather dated now, as are the cinematic references, particularly in light of Twilight and Harry Potter.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews