ABSTRACT
Catherine Crowther, Jane Haynes and Kathleen Newton consider the innate arche typal motifs symbolised in fairy tales and the range of ways in which we respond to them. They expand on the interaction between the motifs and cultural, sociological and clinical orientations. The authors explore how the individual resonates to fairy tales in the course of different life stages; their lasting appeal to generations of children and adults; their adaptability to changing society. They examine the inter play between the ancient oral folk tale tradition and the familiar fairy tales of the European literary genre handed down to us by Perrault (1697) and the Brothers Grimm (1812-56). The paper refers to the difference in the focus of psychological understanding between Freud and Jung, and von Franz and Bettelheim. The devel opments in the application of fairy tales to clinical work is illustrated by Dieckmann, Jacoby and Kast. The authors give two clinical vignettes to illustrate the role of the personal equation in the spectrum of analytical approaches they have developed.
