Bad Fathers, Wicked Stepmothers, Cannibalistic Witches, and Amorous Princes : A Psychoanalytic Study of Fairy Tales.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

White, Robert.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fairy tales--History and criticism.

Fairy tales.

Folklore--Psychological aspects.

Folklore.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (0 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bradford : Ethics International Press Limited, 2025.

Summary:

Psychoanalysis has been interested in fairy tales and myths from the very beginning. In the interpretation of dreams, Freud felt he had found the royal road to the unconscious, and that he could find in myths and fairy tales the same eternal truths about the unconscious. The myth of Oedipus could be considered the founding myth of psychoanalysis. Freud soon turned to the study of fairy tales, which he thought, in conjunction with German romanticism, could be equated with primary process and the unconscious. The fairy tale was equated with the dream. This was a golden age of interest in fairy tales among the earlier Freudians. In addition, Freud formed an alliance with Jung, who had an independent interest in myth. Jung maintained the centrality of inherited psychic structures, which he called archetypes. Consequently, the Jungians have remained much more interested in myth and fairy tale than the Freudians. While fairy tales have remained popular in current culture in fictional retellings, movies, cartoons and opera, there has been no modern extended psychoanalytic interpretation of fairy tales. Psychoanalytic theory has broadened considerably in the last decades to include ideas about gender, sexuality, race, social conflict, and disorganized personality than the traditional Freudian focus on Oedipal development. This new book aims to add meaning that captures the deeper traumatic nature of human life. The author examines the multiple variations of myths and tales, both within a nationality, and across nationalities. The literary version that has become canon was the one version of the tale that was written down. By looking at the variations, we can get a better sense of the multiple meanings possible. The other road to meaning is modern rewriting of the tales, which, when well done, adds to new layers to the tales. The book also looks at

examples of fantasy; a more modern novelistic treatment of fairy tale themes.

Contents:

Intro

Preface

Acknowledgments

Illustrations

Part I Introduction and Overview

One What is a Fairy Tale?

Introduction

Myths

Folklore and Folk tales

What is a fairy tale?

Structure of Fairy Tales

Interpretation

Gender Issues

Conclusion

Two A History of the Literary Fairy Tale

Academic Studies

Literary Precursors of Fairy Tales

Italy

France

Germany

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Social Background

Romantic Nationalism

After the Grimms

Three Five Early Pioneers in the Psychoanalytic Study of Fairy Tales39F

Freud and Jung

Géza Róheim

Marie-Louise von Franz

Bruno Bettelheim

Part II Studies of Individual Tales

Four Hansel and Gretel: A Tale of Terror59F

A Family of Stories

A Psychoanalytic Reading of Hansel and Gretel

A Clinical Case65F

A Traumatic Reading of Hansel and Gretel

Discussion

Five The Jew Among Thorns and The Protocols of Zion: A Psychoanalytic Theory of Antisemitism69F

Freud and Antisemitism

A Theory of Internalized Racial/Religious Hatred

Internal Racism

Large-group identity

Large-group identity as a pathological force

An example from literature - Grimm's Fairy Tales

The Three Little Pigs

The Jew Among Thorns

The Protocols of the Meetings of the Learned Elders of Zion

Conclusions

Six Beauty and the Beast: Eros and Affection

Two versions of Beauty and the Beast

The Classic European Version

Psychoanalytic Interpretations of Beauty and the Beast

The Tiger's Bride

Psychoanalytic theories of affection

Freud

Later theories of affection

A Clinical Vignette

Seven Bluebeard: Serial Killers

Introduction.

The Tale of Bluebeard

Robber Bridegrooms

The Paranoid Position and Ideal Objects

Modern re-interpretations of Bluebeard

The Bloody Chamber

Tristan and Isolde

Bluebeard's Castle

Zombie

A clinical example

Eight Little Red Riding Hood

Perrault and Grimm

Variants of Little Red Riding Hood

Modern Versions of Little Red Riding Hood

In the Company of Wolves

The Oedipus Complex

Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Little Red Riding Hood

Nine Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin

Variants of Rumpelstiltskin

Critical Interpretations of Rumpelstiltskin

Trauma and Drive Theory

Alice Miller

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)

Ten Little Snow White and Rapunzel: Disneyfication

Walt Disney

Little Snow White by the Brothers Grimm

The Disney version of Snow White

Pathological Envy

Rapunzel

Tangled

The Piano Teacher

The Disney Princess

Eleven The Arabian Nights

A Brief History

Translations

The Frame story

The Fisherman and the Jinni

Commentary

The Porter and the Three Women of Baghdad

Part III Psychobiographical Studies

Twelve Peter Pan, Wendy, and the Lost Boys: A Dead Mother Complex

Representation and non-representation

Melanie Klein

Andre Green

Wilford Bion and Donald Winnicott

The Dead Mother

A Literary Presentation of the Dead Mother and the Way of the Negative

James M. Barrie

The Little White Bird

Peter Pan

Wendy and Peter

Thirteen The Grimm Brothers and Sigmund Freud: Two Sets of Siblings

Siblings in the Psychoanalytic Literature

Two Families

The Grimm Family

The Grimm Tales

The Freud Family.

Freud's Ideas About Siblings

Fourteen T. H. White: The Once and Future King

The Life of T. H. White

Fantasy Fiction

The Once and Future King

Literary Sources

Themes in The Once and Future King

The Sword and the Stone

The Ill-Made Knight

The Queen of Air and Darkness

The Candle and the Wind

Oedipus in T. H. White and the Arthurian legends

The Kleinian view of the Oedipus complex

Oedipal Precursors T. H. White and the Arthurian legends

Epilogue

References

Index

Author's Biography.

Notes:

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ISBN:

9781804416211

1804416215

OCLC:

1514996410