FAIRY TALES
When
a myth is enacted in a ritual performance or, in a
more general, simpler and profaner fashion, when a fairy-tale is told, the
healing factor within it acts on whoever has taken an interest in it and allowed
himself to be moved by it in such a way that through this participation he will
be brought into connection with an archetypal form of the situation and by this
means enabled to put himself “into order”. Archetypal dreams
can have the same effect. Equally, this putting oneself “into
order” or “becoming one with a higher will” is the content of religious
experience. TGL – intro 37
The fascination and vitality of myths
and fairy-tales lie precisely in the fact that they depict basic forms of human
experience. For this very reason the same motifs are found
the world over, not only as the result of migration but also because
the human
psyche which produces them is everywhere the same. TGL
– intro 37
(Archetypal)
images are already present in the
psyche as structural
forms of the instinct
before any individual
consciousness arises. For this reason the child’s world
consists more of archetypal forms and images than of ordinary people and
objects. The child lives in a fairy-tale world.
This is understandable when one reflects that the
archetype is defined as an inborn pattern
or form of perception and behaviour. TGL 42
The magic of this world is one of the reasons why the state of childhood is greatly loved and worth striving for and why the step into “life” and reality is so difficult. For the same reason so many myths tell of the origin of human existence in Paradise, or of a golden age that was lost and replaced by a far less perfect world. TGL 42
The yearning for the mother can therefore also be understood, in non-mythological language, as the attraction exerted by the unconscious, a constant occurrence that is comparable to the effect of the law of gravity. The development and preservation of ego consciousness is, for that very reason, often represented by the hero myth, for it is an achievement that can be compared to a fight with an overwhelming monster and which calls for almost superhuman strength. TGL 43
For
I do not know what to say to the patient when he asks me, “What do you advise?
What shall I do?” I don’t know either.
I only know one thing: when my
conscious mind no longer
sees any possible road ahead and consequently gets stuck, my
unconscious psyche will
react to the unbearable standstill.
This “getting stuck” is a psychic occurrence so often repeated during the
course of human history that it has become the theme of many myths and
fairytales. We are told of the Open sesame! to the locked
door, or of some helpful animal who finds the hidden way. In
other words, getting stuck is a typical event which, in the course of time, has
evoked typical reactions and compensations. We may therefore
expect with some probability that something similar will appear in the reactions
of the unconscious, as, for example, in dreams.
TPoP 42