Library Essentials: The Interpretation of Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise Von Franz

The Interpretation of Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise Von Franz is today's library essential. Von Franz is who you need to read if you want Jungian interpretations of fairy tales. This is one of her more famous books, but she has many for various fairy tales so it is worthwhile to explore her works and see what may intersect with your personal interests the most. This volume is a great start and overview of Jungian fairy tale theory.

Book description from the publisher:

Of the various types of mythological literature, fairy tales are the simplest and purest expressions of the collective unconscious and thus offer the clearest understanding of the basic patterns of the human psyche. Every people or nation has its own way of experiencing this psychic reality, and so a study of the world's fairy tales yields a wealth of insights into the archetypal experiences of humankind.

Perhaps the foremost authority on the psychological interpretation of fairy tales is Marie-Louise von Franz. In this book—originally published as An Introduction to the Interpretation of Fairy Tales —she describes the steps involved in analyzing and illustrates them with a variety of European tales, from "Beauty and the Beast" to "The Robber Bridegroom."

Dr. von Franz begins with a history of the study of fairy tales and the various theories of interpretation. By way of illustration she presents a detailed examination of a simple Grimm's tale, "The Three Feathers," followed by a comprehensive discussion of motifs related to Jung's concept of the shadow, the anima, and the animus. This revised edition has been corrected and updated by the author.

Marie-Louise von Franz (1915–1998) was the foremost student of C. G. Jung, with whom she worked closely from 1934 until his death in 1961. A founder of the C. G. Jung Institute of Zurich, she published widely on subjects including alchemy, dreams, fairy tales, personality types, and psychotherapy.

Table of Contents:

Preface
Acknowledgments
Theories of Fairy Tales
Fairy Tales, Myths, and Other Archetypal Stories
A Method of Psychological Interpretation
A Tale Interpreted: "The Three Feathers"
"The Three Feathers" Continued
"The Three Feathers" Completed
Shadow, Anima, and Animus in Fairy Tales
Notes
Index

The Bluebeard Series by Sarah Chambers D.C.H.P.

Behind Closed Doors

The Bluebeard Series

Empowering women to rediscover their authentic self

By Sarah Chambers D.C.H.P.

Bluebeard - Audio Story For Wild Women

This package offers you the audio story/analysis of Bluebeard and is for women who feel the wild energy of their soul calling them to action, but has yet to take on the challenge of waking to their authentic self. For the evolution of a woman's consciousness to develop and expand she must wake up and become conscious that change is needed in her life and not deny it or run from it.

Her captor, the thing that confines her may be a a partner, husband, child or a one of her family members. It may also be a culture or religion. But the captor can also be inner negative complexes or self sabotaging destructive ways of thinking or behaving or any unconscious suppressed way of living and being.

Bluebeard is more than a man he is the captor, that inner aspect that controls us through fear. Open the door and shine the light into the dark corners, you are so much more than you think you are and can be so much more than that!

Anima - Inner feminine side of man. Animus Inner masculine side of woman.

Animus-Anima - Awakening Feminine Consciousness
Development of the Self - Beyond Conditioning and Social Hypnosis
This recording is about animus, the masculine soul energy within woman the strong and powerful force that drives her instincts for growth and personal development. It is that unconscious part of her that longs to feel the wind of freedom. It is the light that shines deep in her soul that stirs her to action. It is the doorway to gaining understanding of the deeper levels of her self.



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This is a wondrous journey of self discovery into your wild and intuitive self, uncovering the pearl within, access your power, your mystery. You can find in the depth of your soul the creative inspiration needed to re-create your own personal world. On this journey you may glimpse images, catch sounds, touch feelings within your body, that your inner self will guide you to experience.

You can unlock positive awareness, and what you need to learn will come to you, in just the right way, and at just the right time. Your inner treasure room awaits you, it has always been there, waiting patiently for you.

Open the door, listen, and trust your intuition to guide you in whatever way is right for you. Remember, we are much more than our bodies, our emotions, our thoughts and behaviours, so much more. Just allow the ordinary everyday world to disappear, let your cares and worries just melt away, fade from your mind. Be gentle guided and supported within the flowing vibrant colours and let the process of inner healing begin.

All of this was copy and pasted from the publisher's page. Pricing information is available there. I haven't tried these, but wanted to share in the interest that I share fairy tale related stuff and always find Bluebeard fascinating myself. And it is just happy coincidence that I am also posting about Von Franz's work today, too.

Facts behind the Cinderella story by Judith Ancer

The following article appeared last week and discusses parenting, step-parenting with some references to Cinderella. From Facts behind the Cinderella story by Judith Ancer:

Once upon a time there was a girl without a mother. Her father soon married someone else but "the wedding festivities were no sooner over than the stepmother began to show herself in her true colours".

This could be a complaint from any number of children I've seen in therapy, but is in fact a quote from an online version of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella.

It is useful to look at the "wicked step-parent" cliché from a psychological perspective. It starts with something psychologists call "splitting".

It is normal and inevitable that children will have ambivalent feelings towards their parents. The wonderful parent who loves, indulges, nurtures and protects you is the same person who gets really mad at you, says no to some of your deepest desires, doesn't understand you and even hurts you sometimes.

It takes psychological maturity to accept that the parent we love and depend on for our very life is the very person we can also fear and resent. Infants and very small children naturally defend against this by "splitting" and experiencing their parents as all good or all bad.

Folk tales and fairy stories make this split concrete - enter the good fairy godmother and her opposite number, the wicked stepmother.

Children, already vulnerable and defensive after a bereavement or a divorce, are primed to anticipate the worst from step-parents.

The article is much longer so click through to read the rest if you are interested.

Freud in Oz: At the Intersections of Psychoanalysis and Children's Literature by Kenneth B. Kidd

Freud in Oz: At the Intersections of Psychoanalysis and Children's Literatureby Kenneth B. Kidd isn't due to be released until November or December of this year. (Academic books don't have hard release dates like bestsellers and I've seen sometime in November and December 1 listed for this one.) But since it's not primarily about fairy tales--but does contain a chapter devoted to them--I thought I would share it now. The good news is that this one will be affordable for the average reader here on SurLaLune, too, with a $25.00 list price for the paperback.

Book description from the publisher:

Children’s literature has spent decades on the psychiatrist’s couch, submitting to psychoanalysis by scores of scholars and popular writers alike. Freud in Oz turns the tables, suggesting that psychoanalysts owe a significant and largely unacknowledged debt to books ostensibly written for children. In fact, Kenneth B. Kidd argues, children’s literature and psychoanalysis have influenced and interacted with each other since Freud published his first case studies.

In Freud in Oz, Kidd shows how psychoanalysis developed in part through its engagement with children’s literature, which it used to articulate and dramatize its themes and methods, turning first to folklore and fairy tales, then to materials from psychoanalysis of children, and thence to children’s literary texts, especially such classic fantasies as Peter Pan and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. He traces how children’s literature, and critical response to it, aided the popularization of psychoanalytic theory. With increasing acceptance of psychoanalysis came two new genres of children’s literature—known today as picture books and young adult novels—that were frequently fashioned as psychological in their forms and functions.

Freud in Oz offers a history of reigning theories in the study of children’s literature and psychoanalysis, providing fresh insights on a diversity of topics, including the view that Maurice Sendak and Bruno Bettelheim can be thought of as rivals, that Sendak’s makeover of monstrosity helped lead to the likes of the Muppets, and that “Poohology” is its own kind of literary criticism—serving up Winnie the Pooh as the poster bear for theorists of widely varying stripes.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: Reopening the Case of Peter Pan

1. Kids, Fairy Tales, and the Uses of Enchantment
2. Child Analysis, Play, and the Golden Age of Pooh
3. Three Case Histories: Alice, Peter Pan, and Oz
4. Maurice Sendak and Picturebook Psychology
5. “A Case History of Us All”: The Adolescent Novel before and after Salinger
6. T Is for Trauma: The Children’s Literature of Atrocity

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

University of Minnesota Press is publishing this one. They don't have a large fairy tale library, but what they have is worth a look. When it comes to folklore they have been republishing classic titles such as the fairy tale illustration work of Wanda Gag. I've written about these before so I'm not planning on individual posts, but wanted to herald their existence again anyway.

   

They've also reprinted Tales from a Finnish Tupa, whose co-editor was Margery Bianco Williams of The Velveteen Rabbit fame as well as Legends of Paul Bunyan.