TODAY ONLY: Bargain Book: The Interpretation of Fairy Tales: Revised Edition by Marie-Louise von Franz

The Interpretation of Fairy Tales: Revised Edition by Marie-Louise von Franz is on sale in ebook format TODAY ONLY for $2.99. This is a rare surprise in the Kindle Daily Deals. I didn't own this in ebook although I did in paper so I got it for my digital library.

Book description:

A Jungian psychologist explains how careful analyses of fairy tales like “Beauty and the Beast” can lead to a better understanding of human psychology

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.

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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

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Behind Closed Doors

The Bluebeard Series

Empowering women to rediscover their authentic self

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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!

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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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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.

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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.

Women in Folklore: Marie-Louise von Franz

Today I am spotlighting Marie-Louise von Franz, not because she was a folklorist, but because her work as a psychotherapist and writer often focused on fairy tales, increasing their visibility with another group of individuals. She was a follower of Carl Jung and applied many of his theories to fairy tales. Whether or not you are an adherent of their philosophies, it is helpful to be familiar with their work since they have influenced the field of psychology as well as fairy tale analysis.

From The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales and Fairy Tales:

A leading disciple of Carl Gustav Jung, German-born Swiss analytical psychologist Marie-Louise von Franz was an expert on the significance of fairy tales. After 1961, she carried on her mentor’s work at the Zurich-based C. G. Jung Institute while developing some of his insights into her own theories.

Once her worldwide study of fairy tales had revealed extensive similarities between narratives from different cultures, von Franz interpreted numerous tales in accordance with Jungian archetypal psychology. Based on her vast knowledge of myths, fairy tales, and dreams, her interpretations centered on the narratives’ recurrent archetypal images. By amplifying the narrative themes and characters, she emphasized the tales’ symbolic meanings.

From Wikipedia:

Marie-Louise von Franz (January 4, 1915 - February 17, 1998), the daughter of an Austrian baron and born in Munich, Germany, was a Swiss Jungian Psychologist and scholar. In her native Switzerland, she was known by a pet form of her Christian name, Malus. She worked with Carl Jung, whom she met in 1933 and knew until his death in 1961. It was Jung who encouraged her to live with fellow Jungian analyst Barbara Hannah, who was 23 years von Franz's senior. When Hannah asked Jung why he was so keen on putting them together, Jung replied that he wanted von Franz "to see that not all women are such brutes as her mother," and also stated that "the real reason you should live together is that your chief interest will be analysis and analysts should not live alone." The two women became lifelong friends.

Von Franz founded the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. As a psychotherapist, she is said to have interpreted over 65,000 dreams, primarily practising in Kusnacht, Switzerland. Von Franz also wrote over 20 volumes on Analytical psychology, most notably on fairy tales as they relate to Archetypal or Depth Psychology, most specifically by amplification of the themes and characters. She also wrote on subjects such as alchemy, discussed from the Jungian, psychological perspective, and active imagination, which could be described as conscious dreaming. In Man and his Symbols, von Franz described active imagination as follows: "Active imagination is a certain way of meditating imaginatively, by which one may deliberately enter into contact with the unconscious and make a conscious connection with psychic phenomena."

Here's a listing with descriptions of some of her key works.


The Interpretation of Fairy Tales by Marie-Louise von Franz and Kendra Crossen

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.

Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales

Fairy tales contain profound lessons for those who would dive into their meaning. Von Franz draws on her vast knowledge of folklore and her experience as a pychoanalyst and a collaborator with Jung to illuminate on fairy tales and the dark side of life and human pyschology.

Feminine in Fairy Tales

In this engaging commentary, the distinguished analyst and author Marie-Louise von Franz shows how the Feminine reveals itself in fairy tales of German, Russian, Scandivian, and Eskimo origin, including familiar stories such as "Sleeping Beauty, " "Snow White and Rose Red, " and "Rumpelstiltskin." Some tales, she points out, offer insights into the psychology of women, while others reflect the problems and characteristics of the anima, the inner femininity of men. Dr. von Franz discusses the archetypes and symbolic themes that appear in fairy tales as well as dreams and fantasies, draws practical advice from the tales, and demonstrates its application in case studies from her analytical practice.

Individuation in Fairy Tales

With a text revised and corrected by the author, this definitive edition of Individuation in Fairy Tales is rich with focuses on the symbolism of the bird motif in six fairy tales of Europe and Asia: "The White Parrot" (Spain), "The Bath Badgerd" (Persia), "Prince Hassan Pasha" (Turkestan), "The Bird Flower Triller" (Iran), "The Nightingale Giser" (Balkans), and "The Bird Wehmus" (Austria). She explores the themes of psychological and spiritual transformation in the varied images of birds, such as the phoenix, the parrot, and the griffin. Special attention is given to the connection between fairy tales and alchemy and to the guidance that fairy tales give to therapeutic work.

Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales

Archetypal Patterns in Fairy Tales is the first new volume of Dr. von Franz's legendary Zurich lectures to be published since 1980. There are in-depth studies of six fairy tales - from Denmark, Spain, China, France and Africa, and one from the Grimm collection - with references to parallel themes in many others. Featuring the symbolic, nonlinear approach she is famous for, it offers unique insights into cross-cultural motifs and individual psychology.

The Mother: Archetypal Image in Fairytales

A feminine perspective on how the mother complex functions in the practical world as well as in the deeper regions of the psyche. The particular focus here is on positive and negative aspects of the maternal image in well-known fairy tales, including Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Hansel and Gretel.

You can read about more titles on Amazon or at the official Marie-Louise von Franz website. It's not a very big or helpful site, but it does list all her works.