Myth and Fairy Tales

Finding our story through Myth and Fairy Tales

Psychology has looked to myth and fairy tales for insight into the unconscious processes of the human mind, much like we examine dreams. To Jungians and Depth psychology, myth and fairy tales offer up a treasure trove of the unconscious imagery that we carry within. These insights have been documented by many such as Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Marie Louise Von Franz, Bruno Bettelheim, and Joseph Campbell. 

However, my exploration is not just how myth and fairy tale lives within and informs our unconscious processes, but rather how we also reinterpret and amplify fairy tales creating new associations and meanings with each generation. The core archetypes that we carry with us may go back thousands of years, but we as a collective reinvent and influence the meaning imbued within fairy tales and myth as well, and this is not always with positive outcomes. 

The Three Graces from Greek Mythology, a core idea in my thesis on where our values come from.

This blog is about exploring psychology through the lens of myth and fairy tales as it exists in our lives and how we may be living out myth and fairy tales. Reflecting on how these things influence each other is important because we can begin to understand this dream that humanity shares and why sometimes these dreams evoke real world nightmares culturally, and individually can affect personal decisions and mental health.

In my Masters thesis in psychology I quote Joseph Campbell (2008) from The Hero with a Thousand Faces who wrote, “Today all of these mysteries have lost their force; their symbols no longer interest our psyche.” I did not and do not agree with Campbell’s assessment that these symbols no longer interest our psyche. The symbols and oldest stories still exist all around us, in our fiction, our sports arenas, our rituals and beliefs. We still use words like hero and we describe our best day ever as being like a fairy tale which implies the happy ending, which is paradoxical at best.  I believe it is impossible to separate our symbols and mysteries from our world, and they can be seen all around. Just look at the greek inspired design at the heart of American democracy that is found in Washington D.C. Consider how we look to heroes all around us, as well as villains, even when none exists.

My goal is to explore where fairy tales and myth are amplified culturally and how the inflection of each amplification can have an effect on us individually, and culturally.