The Role of Fairy Tales in the Self-Realization Process
The Role of Fairy Tales in the Self-Realization Process
Keywords: fairy tales; individuation; archetypes; hero; education; European relations
The core of Carl Gustav Jung’ theory is the teleological orientation of unconscious processes towards individuation. Archetypes provide psychological information regarding the way in which the individuation process unfolds. The fairy tale reflects the universal, elemental and fundamental structures of the psyche in a language accessible above cultural and ethnical differences. Each fairy tale is associated with a specific type of archetypal behaviour. The fairy tale acts as an initiatory text whose force comes from the emotional load of the hero archetype. It is the most simple and efficient means of transmitting information on the individuating process.
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