Thursday, September 16, 2010

The Psychi of Fairy Tales


I have never thought of psychoanalyzing fairy tales, but fairy tales work well with psychology.  For a form of art that has a “depthlesness”, these stories have such depth from a psychological standpoint. 
This Tuesday, Dr. Mazeroff, a psychology professor here at McDaniel, gave the class a very interesting presentation, and myself, a new perspective on fairy tales.  It was my first time being exposed to psychology, having never learned much about it before.  He detailed Freudian and Jungian theories and how they both can be be applied to folk tales.  The Id, Ego, and Superego can be applied to all tales, be it specific instances or actions by a character.  Dr. Mazeroff’s explanation of Freud’s theories and applications to these tales surprised me.  The sexual connotations, innuendos, and psychosexual stage theory that Dr. Mazeroff pointed out, and the Freudian theories of such connotations in these tales was a view I did not expect.  Maybe it was my naiveness or that I ‘turned the other cheek’, but I never thought about fairy tales in this light before. 
Jung’s ideas, on the other hand, I was more familiar with.  Archetypes and symbols are things that I have learned to watch for in literature, but never applied this investigation to fairy tales.  Jungian’s basic archetypes are ones that can be seen in most tales, be it the evil stepmother or the trickster.  The Jungian concept of the hero’s journey, which Dr. Mazeroff described, seemed consistent with as many tales that come to my mind.  In Hansel and Gretel, the two children start off as normal, they go on a journey, deny it the first time by returning home, but the second have no choice but to take the journey, and in the end succeed in killing the evil witch and taking her riches, then returning to their ordinary world, richer and happier.
It was very interesting to me to have Dr. Mazeroff break down Hansel and Gretel through his background in psychology for a tale that when I read it, I read it mainly as is.    As I continue through the course and continue to read more tales, I will attempt to apply some of the Freudian and Jungian theories and concepts in my analyzation of these tales.
As a side note...This is a video from one of my favorite television shows.  The show is a comedy about a pair of friends from New Zealand trying to succeed in New York as musicians.  It is a joking clip making fun of television in New Zealand, but I found it similar to folk tales.  It pokes fun at folk tales, and the unrealistic qualities that we tend to ignore.


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