ABSTRACT
The interpretations of folk-lore material formulated by psychoanalysts cannot be adequately described or criticized without placing them in their full setting of general psycho-analytic theory, as developed by S. Freud and his disciples. It is in the study of folk-tales and myths, that folklorists have made their chief and specific contribution. No clear criterion for judging which combinations are 'logical'; but Aarne's classification of tales by types and Thompson's classification by motifs greatly facilitate the discussion of this and other questions raised by folk-lore research. Since it is not generally believed, and indeed the authors of these works do not appear to claim, that children have played a very important part in the formation of folk-tales, this interesting branch of psychological research cannot receive more than this brief mention here. Collectors should communicate with dialect and folk-lore archives, as well as with psychological laboratories where gramophone records are used for experimental work, The Cambridge Psychological Laboratory.
