Fairy tales psychoanalyze

Psychoanalysis of the fairy tales (original title: The Uses off Enchantment ) is a book of Bruno Bettelheim left in 1976. It was translated English by Théo Carlier in a spirit of popularization of the psychoanalytical theories.

Through several popular tales such as White-Snow or the Beautiful one and the Animal , Bettelheim analyzes the psychoanalytical contents there tales for children, sticking in particular to broad topics like the Oedipus complex or the fraternal competition in the children. It shows how these tales answer the anguishes of the children and informing them on the tests to come and the efforts to be achieved before reaching maturity. It puts in prospect various versions for the tales and watch which are those which correspond best to the psychological structuring of the child. Thus, such version of the Three small pigs makes it possible to the young child to integrate the need, to grow, to pass from the pleasure principle (governed by the prevalence of the imaginary world, of the infantile absolute power) to the principle of reality (governed by the constraints of the daily life, dependant on socialization); what does not allow, according to Bettelheim, other versions.

Quotation

Any fairy tale is a magic Miroir which reflects certain aspects of our interior universe and the steps that our passage of immaturity to maturity requires. For those which plunge in what the fairy tale has to communicate, it becomes a peaceful lake which initially seems to reflect our image; but behind this image, we discover soon the interior tumult of our spirit, its depth and the manner of putting to us in peace with him and the outside world, which rewards us for our efforts.

The myths put in scene personality ideal which act according to the requirements of the super-ego, while the fairy tales depict an integration of ego which allows a suitable satisfaction of the desires of the ça.

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