ABSTRACT
This story and the one following in Chapter 10 called “Prince Lindworm” is typical of the so-called “maiden-murderer tales” where an evil wizard, diabolical stranger, or monstrous dragon seduces or capures innocent maidens and murders or eats them until finally the source of his power is revealed, leading to his defeat or transformation. Unlike Rapunzel, where the caretaking part of the self-care system was relatively benign, these tales present an evil, diabolical “caretaker,” personifying total destructive aggression. Because aggression is part of defense, both these stories have something to teach us about the nature of the self-care system in early trauma, and especially about the persecutory side of our Protector/Persecutor and how he or she functions as a personification of the psyche's primitive aggressive energies, all directed back at the self. When the Protector/Persecutor is present in the inner world, aggression that would normally be available to the ego for separation/differentiation is cut off from consciousness and appears in daimonic form, attacking from within.
