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Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales
A renowned psychologist examines fairy tales through a Jungian lens, revealing what they can teach us about the darkest sides of human behavior
Fairy tales seem to be innocent stories, yet they contain profound lessons for those who would dive deep into their waters of meaning. In this book, Marie-Louise von Franz uncovers some of the important lessons concealed in tales from around the world, drawing on the wealth of her knowledge of folklore, her experience as a psychoanalyst and a collaborator with Jung, and her great personal wisdom. Among the many topics discussed in relation to the dark side of life and human psychology, both individual and collective,
• How different aspects of the “shadow”—all the affects and attitudes that are unconscious to the ego personality—are personified in the giants and monsters, ghosts, and demons, evil kings, and wicked witches of fairy tales
• How problems of the shadow manifest differently in men and women
• What fairy tales say about the kinds of behavior and attitudes that invite evil
• How Jung’s technique of Active imagination can be used to overcome overwhelming negative emotions
• How ghost stories and superstitions reflect the psychology of grieving
• What fairy tales advise us about whether to struggle against evil or turn the other cheek
Dr. von Franz concludes that every rule of behavior that we can learn from the unconscious through fairy tales and dreams is usually a sometimes there must be a physical struggle against evil and sometimes a contest of wits, sometimes a display of strength or magic and sometimes a retreat. Above all, she shows the importance of relying on the central, authentic core of our being—the innermost Self, which is beyond the struggle between the opposites of good and evil.
Fairy tales seem to be innocent stories, yet they contain profound lessons for those who would dive deep into their waters of meaning. In this book, Marie-Louise von Franz uncovers some of the important lessons concealed in tales from around the world, drawing on the wealth of her knowledge of folklore, her experience as a psychoanalyst and a collaborator with Jung, and her great personal wisdom. Among the many topics discussed in relation to the dark side of life and human psychology, both individual and collective,
• How different aspects of the “shadow”—all the affects and attitudes that are unconscious to the ego personality—are personified in the giants and monsters, ghosts, and demons, evil kings, and wicked witches of fairy tales
• How problems of the shadow manifest differently in men and women
• What fairy tales say about the kinds of behavior and attitudes that invite evil
• How Jung’s technique of Active imagination can be used to overcome overwhelming negative emotions
• How ghost stories and superstitions reflect the psychology of grieving
• What fairy tales advise us about whether to struggle against evil or turn the other cheek
Dr. von Franz concludes that every rule of behavior that we can learn from the unconscious through fairy tales and dreams is usually a sometimes there must be a physical struggle against evil and sometimes a contest of wits, sometimes a display of strength or magic and sometimes a retreat. Above all, she shows the importance of relying on the central, authentic core of our being—the innermost Self, which is beyond the struggle between the opposites of good and evil.
352 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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5376 people want to read
About the author
Marie-Louise von Franz
127 books834 followersMarie-Louise von Franz was a Swiss Jungian psychologist and scholar.
Von Franz worked with Carl Jung, whom she met in 1933 and knew until his death in 1961. Jung believed in the unity of the psychological and material worlds, i.e., they are one and the same, just different manifestations. He also believed that this concept of the unus mundus could be investigated through research on the archetypes of the natural numbers. Due to his age, he turned the problem over to von Franz. Two of her books, Number and Time and Psyche and Matter deal with this research.
Von Franz, in 1968, was the first to publish that the mathematical structure of DNA is analogous to that of the I Ching. She cites the reference to the publication in an expanded essay Symbols of the Unus Mundus, published in her book Psyche and Matter. In addition to her many books, Von Franz recorded a series of films in 1987 titled The Way of the Dream with her student Fraser Boa.
Von Franz founded the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. In The Way of the Dream she claims to have interpreted over 65,000 dreams. 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."
Von Franz worked with Carl Jung, whom she met in 1933 and knew until his death in 1961. Jung believed in the unity of the psychological and material worlds, i.e., they are one and the same, just different manifestations. He also believed that this concept of the unus mundus could be investigated through research on the archetypes of the natural numbers. Due to his age, he turned the problem over to von Franz. Two of her books, Number and Time and Psyche and Matter deal with this research.
Von Franz, in 1968, was the first to publish that the mathematical structure of DNA is analogous to that of the I Ching. She cites the reference to the publication in an expanded essay Symbols of the Unus Mundus, published in her book Psyche and Matter. In addition to her many books, Von Franz recorded a series of films in 1987 titled The Way of the Dream with her student Fraser Boa.
Von Franz founded the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. In The Way of the Dream she claims to have interpreted over 65,000 dreams. 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."
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December 22, 2022
This is a fascinating book. There were times when I thought this had been written by a man – her depiction of the normal female state sounds so entirely sexist to my ears now, but I guess the point is that we are meant to be looking at archetypes, rather than human females, per se.
One of the things I really liked about this book was the notion that fairy tales provide perhaps less complex versions of archetypal stories than are provided in myths or religious stories. I hesitate in saying that, because I know it isn’t exactly what she did say, and that I hardly think fairy tales are ‘simple’ in any sense. The beauty of a Jungian analysis of fairy tales is it does not presume that the writer of these tales had any idea of the deep psychological needs that were being presented in the stories themselves. That isn’t to say that they did not understand these deep needs, but that there is a sense in which the stories tell the story-teller as much as the other way around.
This book is two long lectures analysing tales from the perspective of ‘the shadow’ and of ‘evil’. Jungian psychology focuses on dichotomies and dualisms. Not in a simple ‘either/or’ sense, but in one where every positive implies a negative and every strength a weakness. These are not always simple and immediately obvious, even in fairy tales, but reconciliation of opposites is often a key feature of these tales.
One of the things said here that impressed me was the idea that for many tales the ‘king’ is actually an embodiment of the ‘king of kings’ (as in Christ) – that is, to be a true king one must be both physically strong, but also spiritually strong too. This has many implications for the kings in fairy tales – not least since in these tales they are likely to be about to lose their kingdom since they have grown too old to retain it, or have begun to prove themselves to be morally incapable of deserving the role.
But the bit that is particularly interesting is the idea of the prince. A prince is a kind of king in waiting. To become king, it isn’t enough for the prince to overcome the king, although this might well be the case, but it is also likely that they will need to develop characteristics they lack that are essentially kingly.
I’m a bit obsessed with Cinderella, so, let’s look at the prince in that story. Really, the prince there is something of a bit character. His role is to fall in love and then to track down the person he fell for – often not terribly successfully. For example, in the original story, the ugly step-sisters are able to fool him by cutting off either their toes or their heels to make their foot fit the shoe. The whole ‘I will marry the woman whose foot fits this shoe’ idea hardly seems like the decision of a genius. But while he is clearly physically handsome, a Jungian interpretation of his role in the story would perhaps be that he falls in love with Cinderella, not for her beauty, but rather for what she possesses that he lacks. What is it that she has that he needs? And in this case I feel it is her clear access to the spiritual realm.
Of course, cinders are ashes, and so symbolic of death – the ultimate access to the spirit realm. But so much else in the story points to Cinderella’s spiritual nature. She has three mothers, for example – a dead natural one, a wicked step-mother and a fairy god mother. It is interesting that the supernatural mother isn’t just the ghost of her dead mother, but rather is identified as a supernatural mother. Also, Cinderella is assisted by birds in the story. Birds being messengers of the gods, given that they occupy a space, by being able to fly, between heaven and earth. It is the birds that alert the prince to the blood coming from the glass slippers of the ugly step sisters and it is the birds that ultimately pluck out their eyes too. The implication in the earliest versions of the story is that Cinderella has encouraged these acts by her bird-minions.
The point is that Cinderella has an ambiguous presence between this world and the next – the spirit world – and that this spirituality is what the prince is lacking and falls in love with in Cinderella. I like that in both the Freudian and Jungian readings of this tale the prince is moved from the periphery to the centre of the story.
There is so much to like about this book. This review hasn’t really touched on any of those things and I’ve really just applied one idea from it to a single tale. She provides numerous examples from fairy tales. I like that in some the path to salvation (or completeness or redemption) is by a male character finding ways to embrace the feminine principle. I love the paradoxes where acting now will mean you will die, but not acting later will be as great a mistake. That symbols must be understood in the richness of their context, and not merely applied as if from a kind of glossary.
This is a stunningly good book – you will never read fairy tales in quite the same way again.
One of the things I really liked about this book was the notion that fairy tales provide perhaps less complex versions of archetypal stories than are provided in myths or religious stories. I hesitate in saying that, because I know it isn’t exactly what she did say, and that I hardly think fairy tales are ‘simple’ in any sense. The beauty of a Jungian analysis of fairy tales is it does not presume that the writer of these tales had any idea of the deep psychological needs that were being presented in the stories themselves. That isn’t to say that they did not understand these deep needs, but that there is a sense in which the stories tell the story-teller as much as the other way around.
This book is two long lectures analysing tales from the perspective of ‘the shadow’ and of ‘evil’. Jungian psychology focuses on dichotomies and dualisms. Not in a simple ‘either/or’ sense, but in one where every positive implies a negative and every strength a weakness. These are not always simple and immediately obvious, even in fairy tales, but reconciliation of opposites is often a key feature of these tales.
One of the things said here that impressed me was the idea that for many tales the ‘king’ is actually an embodiment of the ‘king of kings’ (as in Christ) – that is, to be a true king one must be both physically strong, but also spiritually strong too. This has many implications for the kings in fairy tales – not least since in these tales they are likely to be about to lose their kingdom since they have grown too old to retain it, or have begun to prove themselves to be morally incapable of deserving the role.
But the bit that is particularly interesting is the idea of the prince. A prince is a kind of king in waiting. To become king, it isn’t enough for the prince to overcome the king, although this might well be the case, but it is also likely that they will need to develop characteristics they lack that are essentially kingly.
I’m a bit obsessed with Cinderella, so, let’s look at the prince in that story. Really, the prince there is something of a bit character. His role is to fall in love and then to track down the person he fell for – often not terribly successfully. For example, in the original story, the ugly step-sisters are able to fool him by cutting off either their toes or their heels to make their foot fit the shoe. The whole ‘I will marry the woman whose foot fits this shoe’ idea hardly seems like the decision of a genius. But while he is clearly physically handsome, a Jungian interpretation of his role in the story would perhaps be that he falls in love with Cinderella, not for her beauty, but rather for what she possesses that he lacks. What is it that she has that he needs? And in this case I feel it is her clear access to the spiritual realm.
Of course, cinders are ashes, and so symbolic of death – the ultimate access to the spirit realm. But so much else in the story points to Cinderella’s spiritual nature. She has three mothers, for example – a dead natural one, a wicked step-mother and a fairy god mother. It is interesting that the supernatural mother isn’t just the ghost of her dead mother, but rather is identified as a supernatural mother. Also, Cinderella is assisted by birds in the story. Birds being messengers of the gods, given that they occupy a space, by being able to fly, between heaven and earth. It is the birds that alert the prince to the blood coming from the glass slippers of the ugly step sisters and it is the birds that ultimately pluck out their eyes too. The implication in the earliest versions of the story is that Cinderella has encouraged these acts by her bird-minions.
The point is that Cinderella has an ambiguous presence between this world and the next – the spirit world – and that this spirituality is what the prince is lacking and falls in love with in Cinderella. I like that in both the Freudian and Jungian readings of this tale the prince is moved from the periphery to the centre of the story.
There is so much to like about this book. This review hasn’t really touched on any of those things and I’ve really just applied one idea from it to a single tale. She provides numerous examples from fairy tales. I like that in some the path to salvation (or completeness or redemption) is by a male character finding ways to embrace the feminine principle. I love the paradoxes where acting now will mean you will die, but not acting later will be as great a mistake. That symbols must be understood in the richness of their context, and not merely applied as if from a kind of glossary.
This is a stunningly good book – you will never read fairy tales in quite the same way again.
May 6, 2010
Interested both in fairy tales/horrors, and in psychology of a Jungian sort, I came to this book with an open mind and a grain of salt. It's no light read and one does need to pick up the psycho-lingo on the way through. The author (or speaker, as it were) interprets the often cryptic symbolism of several strange fairy tales you probably don't know. She does so with ease, which may leave you with something between awe and a taste of that grain-of-salt skepticism mentioned above. At points, I found easy explanations for some of the more cryptic items seemed to skirt new age in their "this is so obvious, so simple" approach.
The problem I had was that, though this book laid out a lot of answers, it didn't detail how those answers were arrived at. It was more than a little frustrating to read the fairy tales toward the end of the book, try and interpret certain things, and discover only how absolutely WRONG I was ...or should I say "wrong"? Unfortunately, the book is better at dazzling than explaining, and so the reader ends up with notes on several obscure fairy tales but a still-tentative grasp on what shadow and evil in fairy tales truly means ...and/or how to go on independently past that last page.
The problem I had was that, though this book laid out a lot of answers, it didn't detail how those answers were arrived at. It was more than a little frustrating to read the fairy tales toward the end of the book, try and interpret certain things, and discover only how absolutely WRONG I was ...or should I say "wrong"? Unfortunately, the book is better at dazzling than explaining, and so the reader ends up with notes on several obscure fairy tales but a still-tentative grasp on what shadow and evil in fairy tales truly means ...and/or how to go on independently past that last page.
May 17, 2009
I love this book and this author. As a close associate of Jung, she shares stories from her relationship with him throughout the book.
On the surface this book appears to be an explanation of Jungian views of metaphor and archetypes in fairy tales. But underneath it's like a mystical tome with clues about how to acquire magical abilities from archetypes and how to avoid possession by them.
Some quotes from the book:
“The shadow is simply the whole unconscious.”
“If one lived quite alone, it would be practically impossible to see one’s shadow, because there would be no one to say how you looked from the outside.”
“Only people who are tremendously overemotional can be also terribly ice-cold.”
“People who have a creative side and do not live it out are most disagreeable clients. They make a mountain out of a mole-hill, fuss about unnecessary things, and so on.”
“Analyzed psychologically, this is exactly what happens if a human being identifies with an archetypal figure. He gets the life energy and even certain parapsychological gifts, clairvoyance and so on, connected with the archetype. Psychotic borderline cases often have parapsychological gifts – knowing through the unconscious things which they couldn’t otherwise know. As soon as you fall into an archetype, or identify with the powers of the unconscious, you get those supernatural gifts, and that is one reason why people do not like to be exorcised or rehumanized again. The loss of those gifts accounts for one of the resistances against therapy.”
On the surface this book appears to be an explanation of Jungian views of metaphor and archetypes in fairy tales. But underneath it's like a mystical tome with clues about how to acquire magical abilities from archetypes and how to avoid possession by them.
Some quotes from the book:
“The shadow is simply the whole unconscious.”
“If one lived quite alone, it would be practically impossible to see one’s shadow, because there would be no one to say how you looked from the outside.”
“Only people who are tremendously overemotional can be also terribly ice-cold.”
“People who have a creative side and do not live it out are most disagreeable clients. They make a mountain out of a mole-hill, fuss about unnecessary things, and so on.”
“Analyzed psychologically, this is exactly what happens if a human being identifies with an archetypal figure. He gets the life energy and even certain parapsychological gifts, clairvoyance and so on, connected with the archetype. Psychotic borderline cases often have parapsychological gifts – knowing through the unconscious things which they couldn’t otherwise know. As soon as you fall into an archetype, or identify with the powers of the unconscious, you get those supernatural gifts, and that is one reason why people do not like to be exorcised or rehumanized again. The loss of those gifts accounts for one of the resistances against therapy.”
December 16, 2020
Yeah, maybe it's less about fairy tales per se, but if you want to read about how C. G. Jung once fed ducks in a pond and about similar excellent anecdotes, this book is for you!
+ some of the explanations and analogies were really flimsy
+ some of the explanations and analogies were really flimsy
August 23, 2023
This is an excellent, non-fiction book by a core member of the Jungian society of Zurich. Von-Franz studied under Carl Jung and practiced as an analyst for years as well as writing a number of books. Of the ones I have read, this is my favourite.
Based on two lecture series
“The problem of the shadow in fairy tales” 1957
“Dealing with evil in fairy tales” 1964
PART I ; the concept of the shadow, from the first lecture series, concentrate on the concept of the shadow, defines how this book uses 'shadow' as part of Jungian mythology and the way that fits into fairy tales where it is seen as a personification of aspects of the unconscious mythology. These are aspects of a persons unconscious which could be added to the ego complex but for some reason are not.
Makes a lot of important points:
-That this shadow can contain both intensely personal and also social/collective elements.
-That the social collective can affect the personal ethic.
- Until the 17th century, fairy tales were not just for children.
-“Fairy tales mean something, and through hearing about them you can be linked again with living traditions...”
- Discusses the importance of the numinous quality in society.
PART II ; EVIL
Starts from the assumed point that fairy tales mirror collective unconscious material begging the question that, if so are there ethical problems in fairy tales? The characters rarely display the emotional involvement that one excepts from modern stories.
We get into types of evil such as possession, taboos, hot and cold evil and there is a lot of discussion about the character of the successful hero and his actions which can be very contradictory from one story to another.
There are a LOT of fairy tales from all around the world in this section, which I love.
Vasilia The Beautiful from Russia, which the cover art is from, contains the Baba Yaga, a fascinating fairy image I have always loved. There are stories from Japan and China, North and South American tribes and others from Europe. Complete with discussions of the symbolic meaning of the stories and what that can mean for the individual.
As Von Franz was an analyst, the overall direction is to look at the symbols and the stories, to see how they fit into analysis. But they are equally valid for personal introspection and for the avid reader of fairy tales for their own sake.
Based on two lecture series
“The problem of the shadow in fairy tales” 1957
“Dealing with evil in fairy tales” 1964
PART I ; the concept of the shadow, from the first lecture series, concentrate on the concept of the shadow, defines how this book uses 'shadow' as part of Jungian mythology and the way that fits into fairy tales where it is seen as a personification of aspects of the unconscious mythology. These are aspects of a persons unconscious which could be added to the ego complex but for some reason are not.
Makes a lot of important points:
-That this shadow can contain both intensely personal and also social/collective elements.
-That the social collective can affect the personal ethic.
- Until the 17th century, fairy tales were not just for children.
-“Fairy tales mean something, and through hearing about them you can be linked again with living traditions...”
- Discusses the importance of the numinous quality in society.
PART II ; EVIL
Starts from the assumed point that fairy tales mirror collective unconscious material begging the question that, if so are there ethical problems in fairy tales? The characters rarely display the emotional involvement that one excepts from modern stories.
We get into types of evil such as possession, taboos, hot and cold evil and there is a lot of discussion about the character of the successful hero and his actions which can be very contradictory from one story to another.
There are a LOT of fairy tales from all around the world in this section, which I love.
Vasilia The Beautiful from Russia, which the cover art is from, contains the Baba Yaga, a fascinating fairy image I have always loved. There are stories from Japan and China, North and South American tribes and others from Europe. Complete with discussions of the symbolic meaning of the stories and what that can mean for the individual.
As Von Franz was an analyst, the overall direction is to look at the symbols and the stories, to see how they fit into analysis. But they are equally valid for personal introspection and for the avid reader of fairy tales for their own sake.
December 4, 2019
An oldie, but a goody.
October 4, 2017
Not worthy of its reputation as an explanation of fairy tales
I think very carefully before posting anything less than a four or five star review of a book. "If you can't find anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all."
What is more, a book represents a serious emotional investment by an author, and a non-positive review is an attack (unsolicited and perhaps unwarranted) on the author's most precious creation.
However, sometimes a book has a reputation that exceeds its merits and so we also have a duty to share our own opinions and views so that others may make a considered decision about whether to buy a copy of the book or not. It may turn out that my honest criticism proves to be exactly what another person needs to hear to be attracted to the book, or I may save someone expense and disappointment.
Marie-Louise von Franz was a renowned Jungian psychologist who practiced in Switzerland and wrote numerous books on psychoanalysis. She built a particular reputation for her work on fairy tales and alchemy, interpreting them through the lens of Jung's teachings and building a bridge between the archetypes of folk and fairy stories, and those found in the analysis of dreams and personalities.
"Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales" is one of von Franz's seminal books. Stemming from a series of lectures that the author delivered, it is split into two parts covering shadow and evil respectively.
I found this book tedious, frustrating, amusing, and interesting in roughly equal measure. The net result is that I'm glad that I read it, but wish it had been a far better book, or even a different book.
The tedium springs from the author's pedagogical and long-winded style. Perhaps that is a function of how Swiss academics used to write 45 years ago, and maybe it was something to the work being based on spoken words, but in any case it makes large chunks of the book repetitive, self-centred, and barely readable.
I was more than a little frustrated with how von Franz reduces everything to Jungian basics seemingly without awareness of the complexity of variety of life. Furthermore, as a reader you can even see her wrestling to mould things into the right shape with all the passion of a numerologist seeking patterns and imposing them on reality. Yet underlying her sometimes contradictory interpretations is a message that some people resist her (Jungian) insight because of their "issues".
Unfortunately my amusement was not what the author intended. But I did laugh out loud a few times, and for that I am grateful. Here are a few selected quotes that particularly tickled me:
| The second task [in a specific fairy tale] is to bring the king's
| crown from the water. Two ducks fulfill it. In antique Greece the
| duck belonged to the love goddess and in circumpolar shamanism it
| is the shaman's guide to beyond and back.
...And perhaps the story-teller was looking for a creature that could go into the water and fetch the crown: a task that would not easily be performed by a cow or a raven.
| I remember all through my childhood a hunter lived under my bed,
| with a yellow dwarf.
...Nothing to add to that one!
| The mother was a nurse, and like some nurses, had a definite
| suicidal complex.
...Which is so absurd as to be almost surreal.
So what, if anything, do I find to redeem this book? Asides from the delightful cover (an extract from Ivan I. Bilibin's "Vasilisa the Beautiful"), the best thing about the work is the collection of fairy tales that are used to illustrate the points that the author wants to make. Selected from different cultures and times, these are rich stories that bring colour to an otherwise drab book.
I'm glad that I read the volume mainly for access to these tales that, along with a few random quotes by von Franz (such as the yellow dwarf under the bed), stimulated my own writing. I also think I have obtained a useful perspective on Jungian analysis.
I think very carefully before posting anything less than a four or five star review of a book. "If you can't find anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all."
What is more, a book represents a serious emotional investment by an author, and a non-positive review is an attack (unsolicited and perhaps unwarranted) on the author's most precious creation.
However, sometimes a book has a reputation that exceeds its merits and so we also have a duty to share our own opinions and views so that others may make a considered decision about whether to buy a copy of the book or not. It may turn out that my honest criticism proves to be exactly what another person needs to hear to be attracted to the book, or I may save someone expense and disappointment.
Marie-Louise von Franz was a renowned Jungian psychologist who practiced in Switzerland and wrote numerous books on psychoanalysis. She built a particular reputation for her work on fairy tales and alchemy, interpreting them through the lens of Jung's teachings and building a bridge between the archetypes of folk and fairy stories, and those found in the analysis of dreams and personalities.
"Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales" is one of von Franz's seminal books. Stemming from a series of lectures that the author delivered, it is split into two parts covering shadow and evil respectively.
I found this book tedious, frustrating, amusing, and interesting in roughly equal measure. The net result is that I'm glad that I read it, but wish it had been a far better book, or even a different book.
The tedium springs from the author's pedagogical and long-winded style. Perhaps that is a function of how Swiss academics used to write 45 years ago, and maybe it was something to the work being based on spoken words, but in any case it makes large chunks of the book repetitive, self-centred, and barely readable.
I was more than a little frustrated with how von Franz reduces everything to Jungian basics seemingly without awareness of the complexity of variety of life. Furthermore, as a reader you can even see her wrestling to mould things into the right shape with all the passion of a numerologist seeking patterns and imposing them on reality. Yet underlying her sometimes contradictory interpretations is a message that some people resist her (Jungian) insight because of their "issues".
Unfortunately my amusement was not what the author intended. But I did laugh out loud a few times, and for that I am grateful. Here are a few selected quotes that particularly tickled me:
| The second task [in a specific fairy tale] is to bring the king's
| crown from the water. Two ducks fulfill it. In antique Greece the
| duck belonged to the love goddess and in circumpolar shamanism it
| is the shaman's guide to beyond and back.
...And perhaps the story-teller was looking for a creature that could go into the water and fetch the crown: a task that would not easily be performed by a cow or a raven.
| I remember all through my childhood a hunter lived under my bed,
| with a yellow dwarf.
...Nothing to add to that one!
| The mother was a nurse, and like some nurses, had a definite
| suicidal complex.
...Which is so absurd as to be almost surreal.
So what, if anything, do I find to redeem this book? Asides from the delightful cover (an extract from Ivan I. Bilibin's "Vasilisa the Beautiful"), the best thing about the work is the collection of fairy tales that are used to illustrate the points that the author wants to make. Selected from different cultures and times, these are rich stories that bring colour to an otherwise drab book.
I'm glad that I read the volume mainly for access to these tales that, along with a few random quotes by von Franz (such as the yellow dwarf under the bed), stimulated my own writing. I also think I have obtained a useful perspective on Jungian analysis.
June 13, 2021
Only when light falls on an object does it throw a shadow.
I'm finding myself more and more intrigued by the Jungian worldview, not so much because it feels right but rather because it feels mostly alien, despite being a wildly influential perspective just a few decades back. For me, it's somewhat similar to reading medieval analysis--the logic is so foreign that sometimes it seems totally incoherent--but the context is modern and much more familiar. Jung, von Franz, and their cohort have a wild confidence in their wild ideas: I am equal parts attracted and repelled.
And I wonder, what paradigms am I so immersed in that I take them for granted? In fifty years, will someone be awed by my strange confidence in ideas that feel obvious now but by then will seem so strange as to be entirely incoherent?
I've also become fascinated by the emergence of applied psychology, particularly ideas around psychological healing, in the second half of the 19th century into the early 20th. Our contemporary understanding of the world is so deeply psychological it's hard to imagine a different way of seeing. We've reached a point that, in American society at least, you're considered an irresponsible and downright reckless adult if you haven't gotten therapy (yet). How did we get here? Texts like this shed light on that strange path.
I'm finding myself more and more intrigued by the Jungian worldview, not so much because it feels right but rather because it feels mostly alien, despite being a wildly influential perspective just a few decades back. For me, it's somewhat similar to reading medieval analysis--the logic is so foreign that sometimes it seems totally incoherent--but the context is modern and much more familiar. Jung, von Franz, and their cohort have a wild confidence in their wild ideas: I am equal parts attracted and repelled.
And I wonder, what paradigms am I so immersed in that I take them for granted? In fifty years, will someone be awed by my strange confidence in ideas that feel obvious now but by then will seem so strange as to be entirely incoherent?
I've also become fascinated by the emergence of applied psychology, particularly ideas around psychological healing, in the second half of the 19th century into the early 20th. Our contemporary understanding of the world is so deeply psychological it's hard to imagine a different way of seeing. We've reached a point that, in American society at least, you're considered an irresponsible and downright reckless adult if you haven't gotten therapy (yet). How did we get here? Texts like this shed light on that strange path.
December 19, 2011
Von Franz's pov is a bit frustrating at times, but the book is worth it for the thought-provoking tales from international sources, and for the explanation of active imagination versus black magic.
November 4, 2015
I probably learned more about Jungian psychology than about fairy tales, but there are definitely lots of interesting passages.
February 9, 2023
An exploration of personal and trans-personal evil. Elevated by von Fran’s wit, charm, and sincerity, the functions of shadow and evil in the psyche are made lucid through analysis of fairytales, folklore, and experiences with analysis patients. What I love -perhaps most- about von Franz is her ability to mend the idiosyncratic with the symbolic and trans personal, delivering salient cultural insights that add a tremendous amount of depth to the stories we’re interpreting. Simply stated, a must read for anyone in the Jungian sphere who takes the ideas of trans-personal symbolism and the melding of the opposites seriously.
February 16, 2012
I'm not sure I liked this book. Her analysis of various fairy tales was interesting, and her stories of various clients were interesting, but she made SO MANY SWEEPING GENERALIZATIONS! And her tone was annoyingly smug. And I didn't like her dismissing the whole discipline of shamanism as schizophrenic individuals terrorizing their primitive societies with their own psychotic fantasies.
The Jungian symbolism in the tales was intriguing, and the way she related it to real life cases was good. In all, I'm glad I read this book, but I most likely won't read it again.
The Jungian symbolism in the tales was intriguing, and the way she related it to real life cases was good. In all, I'm glad I read this book, but I most likely won't read it again.
April 19, 2013
I have collected fairy tales for many years. If I had to rate the #1 person who has provided the most insight into these tales it is Marie-Louise Von Franz. These books, and there are a number of them, are fabulously insightful. Each one is hard to put down. I am sad that she has passed on and there will be no more.
July 25, 2019
Another excellent book by the Marie-Louise von Franze which examines the shadow and evil in fairy tales. Von Franz stresses that "They [Fairy Tales] are so profound that one cannot explain them superficially; they require that one dive into deep water."
October 4, 2025
Fascinating book. Another one which I probably would not have come across if I hadn't had it shared and recommended by a friend, and I thank him again for doing so.
Lots and lots of different interesting details in this book which I found incredibly valuable, but on a fundamental level it is incredible for its analysis and discussion of precisely what the title implies, Fairy Tales, in a way which has permanently altered how I perceive such stories and interpret them.
As I write this currently I am quite tired so I will skip my own compiled thoughts and simply jot down below the excerpts I found especially interesting or valuable, and in some cases just mildly entertaining to read. But this book has done me a lot of good in many ways and I would recommend it to anyone.
The selected fairy tales are also quite interesting to read and the deep analysis Marie-Louise von Franz provides is enlightening and gives much to think about.
Selected notes:
"If the ego takes a one-sided ethical decision and a one-sided moral attitude and gets into real conflict with the shadow <<[our unconscious, essentially]>>, there is no solution. That is one of the problems of our civilization.
In most primitive civilizations people never get into a serious shadow conflict because they can shift unthinkingly from one attitude to another, and the right hand does not know what the left hand does. You can see this in missionaries’ reports. They do something for the tribe, which becomes quite attached to them, but then there is an epidemic, and the missionary is blamed and killed: the countermovement comes up. Afterward they regret it, but they are not really upset or depressed at what has happened, and life goes on. This is an extreme case of something which happens to us all the time. The shadow conflict does not become too acute because we have a shifting attitude by which we live. We try to be good and commit all sorts of bad things which we do not notice, or, if we notice them, we have an excuse, a headache, or it was the other person’s fault, or you forget about it—that is how the shadow problem is usually dealt with. I do not actually criticize this because it is the only way we can live. One has a shadow, a strong instinctive power, and if one does not want to get stuck in an insoluble problem, one must ignore some things so as to be able to get through life. You get a certain amount of recognition and criticism, but if you do not go too far, you achieve a kind of in-between solution.
Christian people, however, are no longer able to go along in this shifty way and do come up against insoluble problems. There is always a yes and a no, and the left hand plays all sorts of tricks and thus life gets stuck—one cannot go on living, because one tries to be too perfect in a one-sided way. If we lived the Christian ideal consciously, it would mean having to be killed and die as martyrs, which is what the early Church said. We would have to stand up for the imprisoned people in China and get killed for it, or something like that. Most people say that that is foolishness and means that one has a savior complex, so they wriggle out of it and say that as long as the problem of evil does not come too close, they will leave it to others. An idealistic young man decided to go to the island where the Americans were to experiment with the atom bomb, so as to prevent the experiment. Most people would say that he was just a fool, too idealistic, but actually he was trying to live the imitatio Christi, so there you see the conflict: either you live under the ethical obligation and so reach a dead end, or, if you do not want to be extreme, you regress and play with both ends. That is the conflict the Christian religion has set us: how far shall we go? If we go too far with the shadow problem, we get stuck or we are martyrs, or we have to cheat a little and live the shadow and not look at it too closely in order to keep up a healthy defense.
The story of the young man who wanted to let himself be killed as a protest against the atom bomb is a typical example of someone whose fanatical and ethical convictions led to a cul-de-sac and to having to die for one’s convictions—killed by the wickedness of the world."
"[People who fight] temptation try to exercise self-control and say it is not to be thought of, and thus repress and fight the shadow tendency. If it is a minor temptation they succeed, but if it is very strong they get depressions and get tired and do not know how to go on in life, and the dreams show the shadow as furious because it did not get its way. That can lead to such a loss of libido that the whole life may get stuck. The man becomes neurotic because the other half of the personality won’t accept the decision and is in a constant fury about it. He has hypochondriacal fantasies and depressions and bad moods and has no pleasure in his work. This can very often be observed with people who try to be too moral.
In such a situation, whatever the man does is wrong: it is disgusting to give in to the shadow and mean to reject it—if he gives in he is mean, and if he does not he is hanged for it; and that is what I would call the typical shadow conflict. No weighing of the pros and cons to a solution. If one cannot shift or cheat a little, the basic shadow conflict in human nature is insoluble, for it results in a situation where one cannot do the right thing. At such a time the weak person will use a crutch and either ask advice of someone else or deny the conflict and say that there is none. That, unfortunately, is often done and with no good results, and then you have the old regression where the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing."
"[There] are two things which dictate human behavior: the collective ethical code, which we can also call the Freudian superego, and the personal moral individual reaction. The latter is generally referred to as the voice of a god or God: the Romans would call it the genius. Socrates would say “my daimonion,” and the Naskapi Indians of the Labrador Peninsula would call it Mistap’eo, the great man who lives in everybody’s heart. In other words, it is a figure which we would call an archetype of the Self, the divine center of the psyche which naturally, in different cultures, has different names and connotations. If this phenomenon arises within oneself, one generally has a strange feeling of certainty as to what is the right thing to do, no matter what the collective code may say about it, and generally the voice not only tells one what to do but imparts a conviction which even can enable an individual to die for it, as did Socrates and many Christian martyrs."
"One may wonder whether it is physical loneliness or spiritual or mental loneliness which seems to invite possession by evil. Personally, I would say both. In the stories I have told it is mainly physical loneliness, being alone out in the woods or mountains, though nowadays with overpopulation one can be just as lonely in a tenth-story flat in a town as people were in the Amazonian forests. That is mental loneliness but also, in a way, physical loneliness … On the other hand, in Christian and Buddhist traditions loneliness is something sought after by people who strive for saintliness and higher spiritual and religious conscious development. If you take that into account, you can say that loneliness invites the powers of the Beyond, either evil or good. The natural explanation would be that the amount of energy normally used in relating to one’s surroundings is dammed back into oneself and activates the unconscious, loads up the unconscious part of the psyche, so that if for a long time one is alone, one’s unconscious will come alive, and then you are caught for better or for worse; either the devil will get you or you will find greater inner realization. If you introvert in this way, as has been reported by people who strove for saintliness in the past, at first you will always be attacked by devils, because at first this energy strengthens what we would call the autonomous complexes in the unconscious. These become more intensified, and before you have worked them out, the fruit of loneliness will not be positive but it will mean fighting with twenty thousand different devils.
I once tried that myself. Having read in Jung that the saints in the desert found that such isolation strengthened their unconscious, I thought that I must try that out! It was my curiosity behavior, you see, the one thing I warned you against! I naturally tried it out in my youth and so imprisoned myself in a hut in the mountains in the snow
…
That experience taught me that loneliness piles up whatever you have in your unconscious, and if you don’t know how to cope with it, it comes first in a projected form … Most people are not capable of standing such situations for a long time; they need the companionship of other people to protect themselves against “It.”
…
You feel as if you were fighting with twenty thousand devils until you have established yourself again in your living realm. So you need the protective ring of human beings, and also of your beloved objects."
"There is another way in which loneliness attracts evil: if you live alone and away from a human community for a very long time, then the tribe, the other people, project their shadow onto you and there is no correcting factor. For instance, after very long holidays in which I do not see my analysands, I often find that when I come back they have slowly spun a web of the most amazing negative ideas about me. That is why the French say, “Les absents ont toujours tort” (the absent ones are always wrong). They think I do this or that, but when they see me again they say, “Why on earth did I believe that? Now that we are together again I cannot even imagine that I could think such things about you.” The actual warm human contact dissipates those clouds of projection, but if one is away for a long time and the tie of affection and feeling loosens, people begin to project.
…
when people can’t understand, they project their own evil."
"Such a thing can begin on the simple level of the spoilsport. When people are having
fun, somebody turns up with a sour face and tries to put a wet blanket on it; if one
person has a nice present, the other makes a jealous remark, spoiling it. These are minor
manifestations of something which tries to destroy the flame of life. Whenever psychic
life, pleasure—in the highest sense of the word—being alive, that burning fire or
spiritual elation comes up, there are always people who try to cut it with envy or
criticism, and that is an aspect of real evil. If I notice this kind of demonic desire to
destroy all psychological life, then I prick up my ears"
"So, after having dealt with fairy tales for many years, I think that
it is probably better to treat evil outside oneself according to the nature wisdom rules of
fairy tales, and to apply the sharpened conscience only to oneself."
"That is
why, according to Jung, not becoming conscious when one has the possibility of doing
so is the worst sin. If there is no germ of possible consciousness within, if God made
you unconscious and you just stay that way, then it doesn’t matter; but if one does not
live up to an inner possibility, then this inner possibility becomes destructive. That’s
why Jung also says that in a similar way one of the most wicked destructive forces,
psychologically speaking, is unused creative power. That is another aspect. If somebody
has a creative gift and out of laziness, or for some other reason, doesn’t use it, that
psychic energy turns into sheer poison. That’s why we often diagnose neuroses and
psychotic diseases as not-lived higher possibilities.
A neurosis is often a plus, not a minus, but an unlived plus, a higher possibility of
becoming more conscious, or becoming more conscious, or becoming more creative, funked for some lousy excuse.
The refusal of higher development or higher consciousness is, in our experience, one of
the most destructive things there is. Among other things, it makes people automatically
want to pull back everybody else who tries. Someone who has unlived creativity tries
to destroy other people’s creativity, and somebody who has an unlived possibility of
consciousness always tries to blur or make uncertain anybody else’s efforts toward
consciousness. That’s why Jung says that if a patient outgrows his analyst, which
happens frequently, he has to leave the analyst, because the latter will probably try to
pull the patient back onto the old level."
"The desire to prevent other people from becoming conscious because one does not
want to wake up oneself is real destructiveness. And having the possibility of becoming
conscious and not taking it is about the worst thing possible."
"People who have a creative side and do not live it out are most disagreeable clients. They make a mountain out of a molehill, fuss about unnecessary things, are too passionately in love with somebody who is not worth so much attention, and so on. There is a kind of floating charge of energy in them which is not attached to its right object and therefore tends to apply exaggerated dynamism to the wrong situation. One can ask them why they exaggerate, why it is so important, but the overimportance or overemphasis is not made consciously. The charge goes into their personal foolishnesses because a part of the dynamic center is not parked or not in connection with the right motivation. The moment these people devote themselves to what is really important, the whole overcharge flows in the right direction, ceasing to heat up things not worth so much emotional attention. Repressed creativity is one of the most frequent reasons for such an attitude, but repression of the religious function in the psyche often results in this tendency to one-sided exaggeration as well."
"These fairy tales all belong to the Christian realm, to European countries. Therefore we have to see this in its relative perspective. It is a compensation for a too-active extraverted masculine outlook in consciousness. These stories compensate the conscious attitude of Christian European tradition, the heroic chivalrous ideal that man has to fight evil, be involved in fighting it actively—doing something about it! Whatever negative or destructive things we have in our social life, or realm of nature, you will always read in the newspapers: “What does the government intend to do about A-B-C-D? Something must be done about it!”
That one should watch and study such destructive factors first, getting at their heart or core before doing something, is foreign to us and comes only as a second thought. The first idea is to do something about it, and that increases the dark power, giving it more and more libido. The art of letting horrible things happen without being seduced into extraverted action is something we have not yet learned. The great problem of the white man, I would say his illness, is his wish to cure evil situations by interfering action."
Entertaining bits:
"Lorenz feels that man has overdifferentiated or overdeveloped this intraspecific fighting tendency and in that way is an abnormal animal. He says that if we do not want mass suicide of our species, we had better become conscious of this fact, and he then proposes simple animal-level remedies, which, he says, are not supposed to solve the world problem, but are only his contribution toward it. One suggestion is to get to know each other better, because as soon as animals know each other well, their intraspecific aggressions are braked. When one animal is accustomed to the smell of another animal, it can’t kill anymore. Lorenz performed such experiments with rats. He took a rat out of its tribe and put it into a hostile rat tribe. When he reintroduced it to its own tribe, it had the smell of the others and was torn into bits instantly. But if the rat was first put into a cage so that the others couldn’t tear it to pieces at once but could sniff at it for a few days, they then would not kill it, which shows—put into plain words—that we should sniff at each other a bit more!
That is certainly a constructive proposition but, as Lorenz himself admits, it only comments on a certain instinctual level of the whole problem."
"These rules of behavior and phenomena still exist and are completely valid. The one moment when I feel really bad in analysis is when I see in one of my analysands that
infantile, daring curiosity about evil. An analysand may say, “Oh, I like going to a place where there are murderers!” Or, “I like to experiment with this woman. I know she is an evil woman, but I must have some experience of life, and I shall try sleeping with her; I must explore that!” If you explore this because it is you—that is, if there is a reason, if your dreams say you must do it—then it is all right, because you can say that this is your evil, that this is your own abyss which you carry within you and sooner or later you will have to meet it. But when you act out of a kind of frivolous attitude, or just out of intellectual curiosity, just to find out about it and with a lack of respect toward the infection and destructiveness of such phenomena, then one feels very uneasy.
Once I had a very intellectual analysand who fell for a girl who was pretty but had a heavy psychosis. He got very much involved with her and was always telling me that he intended to marry her. I went through agonies as to whether or not I should give him warning; after all, if he married a girl with a psychosis, that might have meant meeting his fate—but it would be no fun, to say the least! So I battled with myself as to how, when, and if I should put in a word of warning. Then he had dreams about the girl which spoke in plain language. But talking seemed to have no effect. Finally, with cold hands and a red face, I made up my mind, thinking that I must clear my conscience, and I said, “Now, listen, to tell you the truth, I think So-and-So has a heavy psychosis.” I thought that would give him an awful shock and might destroy our rapport, but he calmly said, “Oh, yes, I saw that long ago,” and went on telling me his dreams. Obviously he had not realized what it meant other than intellectually. He had read some psychiatric books and could label the woman as psychotic, but he did not know what that meant; he did not know the emotional weight of the statement…"
Lots and lots of different interesting details in this book which I found incredibly valuable, but on a fundamental level it is incredible for its analysis and discussion of precisely what the title implies, Fairy Tales, in a way which has permanently altered how I perceive such stories and interpret them.
As I write this currently I am quite tired so I will skip my own compiled thoughts and simply jot down below the excerpts I found especially interesting or valuable, and in some cases just mildly entertaining to read. But this book has done me a lot of good in many ways and I would recommend it to anyone.
The selected fairy tales are also quite interesting to read and the deep analysis Marie-Louise von Franz provides is enlightening and gives much to think about.
Selected notes:
"If the ego takes a one-sided ethical decision and a one-sided moral attitude and gets into real conflict with the shadow <<[our unconscious, essentially]>>, there is no solution. That is one of the problems of our civilization.
In most primitive civilizations people never get into a serious shadow conflict because they can shift unthinkingly from one attitude to another, and the right hand does not know what the left hand does. You can see this in missionaries’ reports. They do something for the tribe, which becomes quite attached to them, but then there is an epidemic, and the missionary is blamed and killed: the countermovement comes up. Afterward they regret it, but they are not really upset or depressed at what has happened, and life goes on. This is an extreme case of something which happens to us all the time. The shadow conflict does not become too acute because we have a shifting attitude by which we live. We try to be good and commit all sorts of bad things which we do not notice, or, if we notice them, we have an excuse, a headache, or it was the other person’s fault, or you forget about it—that is how the shadow problem is usually dealt with. I do not actually criticize this because it is the only way we can live. One has a shadow, a strong instinctive power, and if one does not want to get stuck in an insoluble problem, one must ignore some things so as to be able to get through life. You get a certain amount of recognition and criticism, but if you do not go too far, you achieve a kind of in-between solution.
Christian people, however, are no longer able to go along in this shifty way and do come up against insoluble problems. There is always a yes and a no, and the left hand plays all sorts of tricks and thus life gets stuck—one cannot go on living, because one tries to be too perfect in a one-sided way. If we lived the Christian ideal consciously, it would mean having to be killed and die as martyrs, which is what the early Church said. We would have to stand up for the imprisoned people in China and get killed for it, or something like that. Most people say that that is foolishness and means that one has a savior complex, so they wriggle out of it and say that as long as the problem of evil does not come too close, they will leave it to others. An idealistic young man decided to go to the island where the Americans were to experiment with the atom bomb, so as to prevent the experiment. Most people would say that he was just a fool, too idealistic, but actually he was trying to live the imitatio Christi, so there you see the conflict: either you live under the ethical obligation and so reach a dead end, or, if you do not want to be extreme, you regress and play with both ends. That is the conflict the Christian religion has set us: how far shall we go? If we go too far with the shadow problem, we get stuck or we are martyrs, or we have to cheat a little and live the shadow and not look at it too closely in order to keep up a healthy defense.
The story of the young man who wanted to let himself be killed as a protest against the atom bomb is a typical example of someone whose fanatical and ethical convictions led to a cul-de-sac and to having to die for one’s convictions—killed by the wickedness of the world."
"[People who fight] temptation try to exercise self-control and say it is not to be thought of, and thus repress and fight the shadow tendency. If it is a minor temptation they succeed, but if it is very strong they get depressions and get tired and do not know how to go on in life, and the dreams show the shadow as furious because it did not get its way. That can lead to such a loss of libido that the whole life may get stuck. The man becomes neurotic because the other half of the personality won’t accept the decision and is in a constant fury about it. He has hypochondriacal fantasies and depressions and bad moods and has no pleasure in his work. This can very often be observed with people who try to be too moral.
In such a situation, whatever the man does is wrong: it is disgusting to give in to the shadow and mean to reject it—if he gives in he is mean, and if he does not he is hanged for it; and that is what I would call the typical shadow conflict. No weighing of the pros and cons to a solution. If one cannot shift or cheat a little, the basic shadow conflict in human nature is insoluble, for it results in a situation where one cannot do the right thing. At such a time the weak person will use a crutch and either ask advice of someone else or deny the conflict and say that there is none. That, unfortunately, is often done and with no good results, and then you have the old regression where the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing."
"[There] are two things which dictate human behavior: the collective ethical code, which we can also call the Freudian superego, and the personal moral individual reaction. The latter is generally referred to as the voice of a god or God: the Romans would call it the genius. Socrates would say “my daimonion,” and the Naskapi Indians of the Labrador Peninsula would call it Mistap’eo, the great man who lives in everybody’s heart. In other words, it is a figure which we would call an archetype of the Self, the divine center of the psyche which naturally, in different cultures, has different names and connotations. If this phenomenon arises within oneself, one generally has a strange feeling of certainty as to what is the right thing to do, no matter what the collective code may say about it, and generally the voice not only tells one what to do but imparts a conviction which even can enable an individual to die for it, as did Socrates and many Christian martyrs."
"One may wonder whether it is physical loneliness or spiritual or mental loneliness which seems to invite possession by evil. Personally, I would say both. In the stories I have told it is mainly physical loneliness, being alone out in the woods or mountains, though nowadays with overpopulation one can be just as lonely in a tenth-story flat in a town as people were in the Amazonian forests. That is mental loneliness but also, in a way, physical loneliness … On the other hand, in Christian and Buddhist traditions loneliness is something sought after by people who strive for saintliness and higher spiritual and religious conscious development. If you take that into account, you can say that loneliness invites the powers of the Beyond, either evil or good. The natural explanation would be that the amount of energy normally used in relating to one’s surroundings is dammed back into oneself and activates the unconscious, loads up the unconscious part of the psyche, so that if for a long time one is alone, one’s unconscious will come alive, and then you are caught for better or for worse; either the devil will get you or you will find greater inner realization. If you introvert in this way, as has been reported by people who strove for saintliness in the past, at first you will always be attacked by devils, because at first this energy strengthens what we would call the autonomous complexes in the unconscious. These become more intensified, and before you have worked them out, the fruit of loneliness will not be positive but it will mean fighting with twenty thousand different devils.
I once tried that myself. Having read in Jung that the saints in the desert found that such isolation strengthened their unconscious, I thought that I must try that out! It was my curiosity behavior, you see, the one thing I warned you against! I naturally tried it out in my youth and so imprisoned myself in a hut in the mountains in the snow
…
That experience taught me that loneliness piles up whatever you have in your unconscious, and if you don’t know how to cope with it, it comes first in a projected form … Most people are not capable of standing such situations for a long time; they need the companionship of other people to protect themselves against “It.”
…
You feel as if you were fighting with twenty thousand devils until you have established yourself again in your living realm. So you need the protective ring of human beings, and also of your beloved objects."
"There is another way in which loneliness attracts evil: if you live alone and away from a human community for a very long time, then the tribe, the other people, project their shadow onto you and there is no correcting factor. For instance, after very long holidays in which I do not see my analysands, I often find that when I come back they have slowly spun a web of the most amazing negative ideas about me. That is why the French say, “Les absents ont toujours tort” (the absent ones are always wrong). They think I do this or that, but when they see me again they say, “Why on earth did I believe that? Now that we are together again I cannot even imagine that I could think such things about you.” The actual warm human contact dissipates those clouds of projection, but if one is away for a long time and the tie of affection and feeling loosens, people begin to project.
…
when people can’t understand, they project their own evil."
"Such a thing can begin on the simple level of the spoilsport. When people are having
fun, somebody turns up with a sour face and tries to put a wet blanket on it; if one
person has a nice present, the other makes a jealous remark, spoiling it. These are minor
manifestations of something which tries to destroy the flame of life. Whenever psychic
life, pleasure—in the highest sense of the word—being alive, that burning fire or
spiritual elation comes up, there are always people who try to cut it with envy or
criticism, and that is an aspect of real evil. If I notice this kind of demonic desire to
destroy all psychological life, then I prick up my ears"
"So, after having dealt with fairy tales for many years, I think that
it is probably better to treat evil outside oneself according to the nature wisdom rules of
fairy tales, and to apply the sharpened conscience only to oneself."
"That is
why, according to Jung, not becoming conscious when one has the possibility of doing
so is the worst sin. If there is no germ of possible consciousness within, if God made
you unconscious and you just stay that way, then it doesn’t matter; but if one does not
live up to an inner possibility, then this inner possibility becomes destructive. That’s
why Jung also says that in a similar way one of the most wicked destructive forces,
psychologically speaking, is unused creative power. That is another aspect. If somebody
has a creative gift and out of laziness, or for some other reason, doesn’t use it, that
psychic energy turns into sheer poison. That’s why we often diagnose neuroses and
psychotic diseases as not-lived higher possibilities.
A neurosis is often a plus, not a minus, but an unlived plus, a higher possibility of
becoming more conscious, or becoming more conscious, or becoming more creative, funked for some lousy excuse.
The refusal of higher development or higher consciousness is, in our experience, one of
the most destructive things there is. Among other things, it makes people automatically
want to pull back everybody else who tries. Someone who has unlived creativity tries
to destroy other people’s creativity, and somebody who has an unlived possibility of
consciousness always tries to blur or make uncertain anybody else’s efforts toward
consciousness. That’s why Jung says that if a patient outgrows his analyst, which
happens frequently, he has to leave the analyst, because the latter will probably try to
pull the patient back onto the old level."
"The desire to prevent other people from becoming conscious because one does not
want to wake up oneself is real destructiveness. And having the possibility of becoming
conscious and not taking it is about the worst thing possible."
"People who have a creative side and do not live it out are most disagreeable clients. They make a mountain out of a molehill, fuss about unnecessary things, are too passionately in love with somebody who is not worth so much attention, and so on. There is a kind of floating charge of energy in them which is not attached to its right object and therefore tends to apply exaggerated dynamism to the wrong situation. One can ask them why they exaggerate, why it is so important, but the overimportance or overemphasis is not made consciously. The charge goes into their personal foolishnesses because a part of the dynamic center is not parked or not in connection with the right motivation. The moment these people devote themselves to what is really important, the whole overcharge flows in the right direction, ceasing to heat up things not worth so much emotional attention. Repressed creativity is one of the most frequent reasons for such an attitude, but repression of the religious function in the psyche often results in this tendency to one-sided exaggeration as well."
"These fairy tales all belong to the Christian realm, to European countries. Therefore we have to see this in its relative perspective. It is a compensation for a too-active extraverted masculine outlook in consciousness. These stories compensate the conscious attitude of Christian European tradition, the heroic chivalrous ideal that man has to fight evil, be involved in fighting it actively—doing something about it! Whatever negative or destructive things we have in our social life, or realm of nature, you will always read in the newspapers: “What does the government intend to do about A-B-C-D? Something must be done about it!”
That one should watch and study such destructive factors first, getting at their heart or core before doing something, is foreign to us and comes only as a second thought. The first idea is to do something about it, and that increases the dark power, giving it more and more libido. The art of letting horrible things happen without being seduced into extraverted action is something we have not yet learned. The great problem of the white man, I would say his illness, is his wish to cure evil situations by interfering action."
Entertaining bits:
"Lorenz feels that man has overdifferentiated or overdeveloped this intraspecific fighting tendency and in that way is an abnormal animal. He says that if we do not want mass suicide of our species, we had better become conscious of this fact, and he then proposes simple animal-level remedies, which, he says, are not supposed to solve the world problem, but are only his contribution toward it. One suggestion is to get to know each other better, because as soon as animals know each other well, their intraspecific aggressions are braked. When one animal is accustomed to the smell of another animal, it can’t kill anymore. Lorenz performed such experiments with rats. He took a rat out of its tribe and put it into a hostile rat tribe. When he reintroduced it to its own tribe, it had the smell of the others and was torn into bits instantly. But if the rat was first put into a cage so that the others couldn’t tear it to pieces at once but could sniff at it for a few days, they then would not kill it, which shows—put into plain words—that we should sniff at each other a bit more!
That is certainly a constructive proposition but, as Lorenz himself admits, it only comments on a certain instinctual level of the whole problem."
"These rules of behavior and phenomena still exist and are completely valid. The one moment when I feel really bad in analysis is when I see in one of my analysands that
infantile, daring curiosity about evil. An analysand may say, “Oh, I like going to a place where there are murderers!” Or, “I like to experiment with this woman. I know she is an evil woman, but I must have some experience of life, and I shall try sleeping with her; I must explore that!” If you explore this because it is you—that is, if there is a reason, if your dreams say you must do it—then it is all right, because you can say that this is your evil, that this is your own abyss which you carry within you and sooner or later you will have to meet it. But when you act out of a kind of frivolous attitude, or just out of intellectual curiosity, just to find out about it and with a lack of respect toward the infection and destructiveness of such phenomena, then one feels very uneasy.
Once I had a very intellectual analysand who fell for a girl who was pretty but had a heavy psychosis. He got very much involved with her and was always telling me that he intended to marry her. I went through agonies as to whether or not I should give him warning; after all, if he married a girl with a psychosis, that might have meant meeting his fate—but it would be no fun, to say the least! So I battled with myself as to how, when, and if I should put in a word of warning. Then he had dreams about the girl which spoke in plain language. But talking seemed to have no effect. Finally, with cold hands and a red face, I made up my mind, thinking that I must clear my conscience, and I said, “Now, listen, to tell you the truth, I think So-and-So has a heavy psychosis.” I thought that would give him an awful shock and might destroy our rapport, but he calmly said, “Oh, yes, I saw that long ago,” and went on telling me his dreams. Obviously he had not realized what it meant other than intellectually. He had read some psychiatric books and could label the woman as psychotic, but he did not know what that meant; he did not know the emotional weight of the statement…"
May 5, 2025
Not my cup of tea. I expected something else, and the language was more scientific than mysterious - what i expected (because I bought a book on its cover again). Sending it back.
December 9, 2012
A Jungian analysis of Fairy Tales. (Or is it the other way around?) Though many Jungian analyists have a "pat" method, von Franz recognizes that this is contrary to Jung's own intention in creating guideline concepts like the anima/animus, shadow, etc. As I had been hoping, she uses fairy tales as a method of showing the various ways that our inner lives can become tangled, or confusing, and sheds light on these through the examples provided by fairy tales. (This is contrary to the approach which would use Jungian analysis as a method of shedding more light on the literary elements of fairy tales, which would be less interesting to me.) Part of her thesis is that fairy tales are often even better indicators of psychological tendencies within a people, certainly within the lower class people, (the "folk") than the more traditional myths of a civilization that we might now encounter in Bullfinch's. I'm not sure if such a clear distinction can be drawn, but generally, it seems plausible, especially within the context of this work.
Presently reading this for the Immanence of Myth project-
www.modernmythology.net
Presently reading this for the Immanence of Myth project-
www.modernmythology.net
December 16, 2024
نکتهی خاص کتاب :
ورژن ایرانی اکثر داستانهای بررسی شده در کتاب قصههای مشدی گلین خانم آمده. وجود اسب سخنگو و راهنمایی کننده، غول بدون قلب(داستان شیشهی عمر دیو)، زاغهای سخنگو(کبوترهای سخنگو)، مرد خسیس و مسابقه برای عصبانی نشدن و غیره.
اکثر داستانها متعلق به مجموعه افسانههای برادران گریم است.
ریویو برای دور دوم خوندن کتاب :
بعضی کتابای غیر داستانی خیلی موذیانه روی ناخودآگاه تاثیر میذارن و این تاثیر رو موقع دوبارهخوانی خیلی خوب میشه درک کرد. اینطوری که بخش اعظم کتاب فراموشت شده و انگار داری برای بار اول میخونیش، اما میبینی که اون نکتههای پشت کتاب تاثیرش رو روی قلمت گذاشتن و قبلا رفتن تو قصههات.
ورژن ایرانی اکثر داستانهای بررسی شده در کتاب قصههای مشدی گلین خانم آمده. وجود اسب سخنگو و راهنمایی کننده، غول بدون قلب(داستان شیشهی عمر دیو)، زاغهای سخنگو(کبوترهای سخنگو)، مرد خسیس و مسابقه برای عصبانی نشدن و غیره.
اکثر داستانها متعلق به مجموعه افسانههای برادران گریم است.
ریویو برای دور دوم خوندن کتاب :
بعضی کتابای غیر داستانی خیلی موذیانه روی ناخودآگاه تاثیر میذارن و این تاثیر رو موقع دوبارهخوانی خیلی خوب میشه درک کرد. اینطوری که بخش اعظم کتاب فراموشت شده و انگار داری برای بار اول میخونیش، اما میبینی که اون نکتههای پشت کتاب تاثیرش رو روی قلمت گذاشتن و قبلا رفتن تو قصههات.
January 30, 2013
Have to be pretty into Jung to really enjoy this, I think.
March 1, 2013
Interesting comparative mythology but a little to self assured about Jungian methods of interpretation
November 6, 2020
I strongly recommend reading of this book for someone who is interested in psychological subjects which are related to myths and stories.
Read
March 31, 2025O livro "A Sombra e o Mal nos Contos de Fada" apresenta uma reflexão profunda sobre a psicologia da sombra e sua relação com a narrativa arquetípica nos contos de fadas. Ao longo de sua leitura, você menciona a importância da individuação, o processo pelo qual o indivíduo se torna consciente de suas partes não reconhecidas e integra sua sombra, criando um senso de totalidade e autenticidade.
A ideia de que a vida humana é uma busca por restaurar uma unidade perdida ressoa fortemente com a psicologia junguiana, que vê a individuação como um caminho para o autoconhecimento e a conexão com o divino. O autor parece destacar que compreender e integrar a sombra — as partes ocultas e frequentemente indesejadas de nós mesmos ��� é crucial para alcançar uma experiência mais completa da vida e da espiritualidade.
A análise histórica que você compartilha sobre a interpretação dos sonhos em várias culturas, desde o Egito antigo até a Grécia, oferece um interessante pano de fundo sobre como a conexão entre o corpo, a psique e o espiritual foi entendida ao longo do tempo. Essa ligação torna-se um tema central na obra, enfatizando que o reconhecimento dos sonhos e a exploração do inconsciente são caminhos essenciais para a cura e o desenvolvimento pessoal.
Outros aspectos que me chamaram a atenção foram as reflexões sobre o papel das narrativas, em particular dos contos de fadas, na formação da nossa compreensão do bem e do mal. Os contos retratam simbolicamente os desafios e as lutas internas que todos enfrentamos. A maneira como o autor correlaciona os personagens e os arquetípicos presentes nesses contos com questões psicológicas modernas torna a leitura ainda mais poderosa e relevante. O "final feliz" dos contos, por exemplo, é uma súplica de esperança e superação, indicando que, apesar das dificuldades e medos que encontramos, é possível superá-los.
A relação entre a sombra coletiva e as experiências individuais oferece insights sobre como as normas culturais e familiares podem influenciar a maneira como lidamos com nossos próprios conflitos internos. Esse ponto ressalta o impacto da dinâmica familiar e social no desenvolvimento da psicologia do indivíduo, incluindo a maneira como as sombras pessoais podem ser externalizadas e projetadas nos outros, muitas vezes culminando em comportamentos destrutivos.
A discussão sobre a necessidade de um diálogo interno, ou imaginação ativa, para enfrentar emoções intensas e lidar com a sombra é particularmente perspicaz. A ideia de que podemos "personificar" nossas emoções e interagir com elas de forma construtiva pode ser uma abordagem poderosa para o autoconhecimento e a cura. Essa prática não apenas desafia o controle do ego, mas também promove um espaço de acolhimento e compreensão das partes de nós que costumamos rejeitar.
Por fim, a visão de que o mal não é algo que deve ser temido ou negado, mas compreendido como uma parte da totalidade da experiência humana, é uma perspectiva madura e necessária. Essa aceitação da dualidade da natureza humana, que abrange luz e sombra, é fundamental para o crescimento e a evolução espiritual.
Em resumo, "A Sombra e o Mal nos Contos de Fada" parece ser uma leitura rica e reflexiva, propensa a provocar questionamentos profundos sobre a natureza humana, nossos medos e desejos, e como podemos reconciliar nossas partes internas em busca de uma vida mais integrada e significativa. A obra destaca a importância de confrontar as sombras, não apenas como indivíduos, mas também dentro das narrativas coletivas que moldam nossa sociedade.
A ideia de que a vida humana é uma busca por restaurar uma unidade perdida ressoa fortemente com a psicologia junguiana, que vê a individuação como um caminho para o autoconhecimento e a conexão com o divino. O autor parece destacar que compreender e integrar a sombra — as partes ocultas e frequentemente indesejadas de nós mesmos ��� é crucial para alcançar uma experiência mais completa da vida e da espiritualidade.
A análise histórica que você compartilha sobre a interpretação dos sonhos em várias culturas, desde o Egito antigo até a Grécia, oferece um interessante pano de fundo sobre como a conexão entre o corpo, a psique e o espiritual foi entendida ao longo do tempo. Essa ligação torna-se um tema central na obra, enfatizando que o reconhecimento dos sonhos e a exploração do inconsciente são caminhos essenciais para a cura e o desenvolvimento pessoal.
Outros aspectos que me chamaram a atenção foram as reflexões sobre o papel das narrativas, em particular dos contos de fadas, na formação da nossa compreensão do bem e do mal. Os contos retratam simbolicamente os desafios e as lutas internas que todos enfrentamos. A maneira como o autor correlaciona os personagens e os arquetípicos presentes nesses contos com questões psicológicas modernas torna a leitura ainda mais poderosa e relevante. O "final feliz" dos contos, por exemplo, é uma súplica de esperança e superação, indicando que, apesar das dificuldades e medos que encontramos, é possível superá-los.
A relação entre a sombra coletiva e as experiências individuais oferece insights sobre como as normas culturais e familiares podem influenciar a maneira como lidamos com nossos próprios conflitos internos. Esse ponto ressalta o impacto da dinâmica familiar e social no desenvolvimento da psicologia do indivíduo, incluindo a maneira como as sombras pessoais podem ser externalizadas e projetadas nos outros, muitas vezes culminando em comportamentos destrutivos.
A discussão sobre a necessidade de um diálogo interno, ou imaginação ativa, para enfrentar emoções intensas e lidar com a sombra é particularmente perspicaz. A ideia de que podemos "personificar" nossas emoções e interagir com elas de forma construtiva pode ser uma abordagem poderosa para o autoconhecimento e a cura. Essa prática não apenas desafia o controle do ego, mas também promove um espaço de acolhimento e compreensão das partes de nós que costumamos rejeitar.
Por fim, a visão de que o mal não é algo que deve ser temido ou negado, mas compreendido como uma parte da totalidade da experiência humana, é uma perspectiva madura e necessária. Essa aceitação da dualidade da natureza humana, que abrange luz e sombra, é fundamental para o crescimento e a evolução espiritual.
Em resumo, "A Sombra e o Mal nos Contos de Fada" parece ser uma leitura rica e reflexiva, propensa a provocar questionamentos profundos sobre a natureza humana, nossos medos e desejos, e como podemos reconciliar nossas partes internas em busca de uma vida mais integrada e significativa. A obra destaca a importância de confrontar as sombras, não apenas como indivíduos, mas também dentro das narrativas coletivas que moldam nossa sociedade.
March 18, 2025
Досега не бях чел Мари-Луиз фон Франц, макар да съм голям почитател на Юнг. Е, останах меко казано впечатлен от нея!
Ако съм напълно честен, в тази книга няма нито увод, нито заключение. Тя направо започва и ви хваща от вратата за краката. В нея се съдържат над 50 приказки, и за колкото и културен да се имах, признавам, че не бях чувал и една от тях. Самата авторка е подбрала куп истории, които перфектно илюстрират какво се случва в нашия живот, тогава когато ние не можем да разберем какво се случва в нашия живот.
Никога не съм си мислел, че ще ми е толкова интересно да чета приказки, още по-малко да ги анализирам. Но сега мога спокойно да заявя, че е точно обратното. Държа да отбележа, че Мари-Луиз признава единствено приказките, които са родени спонтанно във времето и са част от колективното несъзнавано (по което значително се различават от романите, където целта е да се предаде конкретна идея).
Приказките са начин за нас да се поучим от предците си и да използваме мъдростта на времето. Ние мислим, че колкото по-модерни ставаме, толкова повече древните решения нямат полза за нас. Иронично е, че е точно обратното. Аз самият се имам за доста отворен човек, но след като прочетох тази книга, немалко от представите ми бяха разбити. А аз винаги се радвам, когато това стане. Значи книгата си е струвала :)
Ако съм напълно честен, в тази книга няма нито увод, нито заключение. Тя направо започва и ви хваща от вратата за краката. В нея се съдържат над 50 приказки, и за колкото и културен да се имах, признавам, че не бях чувал и една от тях. Самата авторка е подбрала куп истории, които перфектно илюстрират какво се случва в нашия живот, тогава когато ние не можем да разберем какво се случва в нашия живот.
Никога не съм си мислел, че ще ми е толкова интересно да чета приказки, още по-малко да ги анализирам. Но сега мога спокойно да заявя, че е точно обратното. Държа да отбележа, че Мари-Луиз признава единствено приказките, които са родени спонтанно във времето и са част от колективното несъзнавано (по което значително се различават от романите, където целта е да се предаде конкретна идея).
Приказките са начин за нас да се поучим от предците си и да използваме мъдростта на времето. Ние мислим, че колкото по-модерни ставаме, толкова повече древните решения нямат полза за нас. Иронично е, че е точно обратното. Аз самият се имам за доста отворен човек, но след като прочетох тази книга, немалко от представите ми бяха разбити. А аз винаги се радвам, когато това стане. Значи книгата си е струвала :)
October 4, 2021
Un'altra lettura bella densa sul perché le fiabe siano incredibilmente sottovalutate, così riassumerei questo libro di Marie Louise Von Franz.
È una lettura che richiede una certa attenzione, ma come l'altro suo libro 'Il femminile nella fiaba' regala tante soddisfazioni: infatti conferma come le fiabe possono fornire degli ottimi consigli su come affrontare le difficoltà della vita, in questo caso specialmente su come non lasciarsi corrompere da queste, mantenendo una certa ingenuità che corrisponde a un'integrità di spirito superiore oppure offrendo soluzioni che sembrano andare contro ciò che la morale (spesso cattolica) ci ha insegnato, ma che invece ci aiutano a tenere il male ancora più a distanza (come rifiutare di rivelare ciò che non si doveva vedere potenzialmente sia buono che malvagio - la fiaba di Vassilissa dovrebbe essere maggiormente conosciuta, io lo dico -).
Inoltre, se non avete mai capito il perché nelle fiabe certe figure come i corvi e i giganti sono quasi sempre raffigurati in chiave negativa, questo saggio soddisferà ogni vostra curiosità su quel fronte.
È una lettura che richiede una certa attenzione, ma come l'altro suo libro 'Il femminile nella fiaba' regala tante soddisfazioni: infatti conferma come le fiabe possono fornire degli ottimi consigli su come affrontare le difficoltà della vita, in questo caso specialmente su come non lasciarsi corrompere da queste, mantenendo una certa ingenuità che corrisponde a un'integrità di spirito superiore oppure offrendo soluzioni che sembrano andare contro ciò che la morale (spesso cattolica) ci ha insegnato, ma che invece ci aiutano a tenere il male ancora più a distanza (come rifiutare di rivelare ciò che non si doveva vedere potenzialmente sia buono che malvagio - la fiaba di Vassilissa dovrebbe essere maggiormente conosciuta, io lo dico -).
Inoltre, se non avete mai capito il perché nelle fiabe certe figure come i corvi e i giganti sono quasi sempre raffigurati in chiave negativa, questo saggio soddisferà ogni vostra curiosità su quel fronte.
June 2, 2021
Some author always take you to a better understanding of the subject they discuss coz they have worked very hard theoretically and practically and have the ability to present in an interesting format.
Here, you learn the hidden archetypal behind the character of fairytale. Author dominates with her interpretation and utmost commanding in her expression.
You move a little higher in understanding the shadow behind every fairytale and how it was transmitting the real truth behind every character.
Fantastic book!
Here, you learn the hidden archetypal behind the character of fairytale. Author dominates with her interpretation and utmost commanding in her expression.
You move a little higher in understanding the shadow behind every fairytale and how it was transmitting the real truth behind every character.
Fantastic book!
January 3, 2021
The author clearly has such a command of this topic and reading this was very informative. It satisfied my curiosity on the topic and the fairy tales chosen throughout the text were new to me.
However, I felt I was reading a lecture where I was observing an expert speak, rather than feeling like a participant during the reading experience- held at arms reach. So it wasn’t as powerful as some non fiction reads for me that feel closer and more personal.
However, I felt I was reading a lecture where I was observing an expert speak, rather than feeling like a participant during the reading experience- held at arms reach. So it wasn’t as powerful as some non fiction reads for me that feel closer and more personal.
January 19, 2022
Directed specifically to those with an interest in Jungian psychology. You have to be able to get past von Franz's fairly obvious groundings in her specific cultural milieu--pronouncements on what "women are like" for instance (many of which don't really account for von Franz). But if you do, there's a very complex take on the way that ideas of evil and the shadow (the unacknowledged aspects of the self) circulate through a wide range of fairy tales.
March 17, 2024
Boy howdy, early days psychology is fascinating stuff to read...but also super duper racist.
I find it genuinely interesting to see the ways people have tried to make sense of our own minds over the ages. We've come up with some remarkable ideas, some of which have held true from one generation to the next (even here, with Jungian psychology!) and some of which are just so...SO racist.
It was still an interesting read, just. Holy cow.
I find it genuinely interesting to see the ways people have tried to make sense of our own minds over the ages. We've come up with some remarkable ideas, some of which have held true from one generation to the next (even here, with Jungian psychology!) and some of which are just so...SO racist.
It was still an interesting read, just. Holy cow.
June 12, 2018
A good, intellectual study of the connection between fairy tales and Jungian psychology from someone who knew Jung personally. Take some ideas with a grain of salt, but very interesting and thought-provoking nonetheless.
April 14, 2019
3.5 stars. I found this interesting to read, and it has some moments of sparking really deep thoughts for me. But it feels a bit disjointed overall. Some of the author's interpretations and conclusions seem very dated or forced (like the foot being a phallic symbol????)
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