The usefulness of fairy tales

Marie-Louise von Franz, one of Jung’s closest colleagues, wrote: 

Of the various types of mythological literature, fairy tales are the simplest and purest expressions of the collective unconscious and thus offer the clearest understanding of the basic patterns of the human psyche.

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More research on the use of fairy tales for teaching resilience to children

page 98 from Happily Ever Resilient: A Content Analysis of Themes of Resilience in Fairytales

.....Paley chose to tell the stories, rather than read them because this allowed children to give input along the way, and as participants, they guided the storyteller to plot twists and resolutions that they could then have control over and reflect upon. Often, the children’s own imaginings were far more frightening than the original stories. One example was a child who had asked not to be told Jack and the Beanstalk “the real way”, but had then suggested that perhaps the giant had eaten his first child by mistake, when Paley and the children discussed why the giant’s wife had hidden Jack and wondered about whether the giant’s wife has a little boy of her own (Paley, 1990). 

Paley reflected: If given enough time, the children will take my questions, good and bad, to the same place: the fate of a vulnerable child surrounded by uncertainty and danger. They caution me about fairy tales, but there is an avalanche of excited responses whenever we discuss them- as if the children have been waiting for someone to unlock the gates to their dreams. (Paley, 1990, p. 155)

The Power of Fairy Tales

Reading some research today: "Similarly, one of the premises of this study was that if fairytales were found to contain specific examples of the three primary protective factors that contribute to resilience (attachment, initiative, and self-regulation), instructional materials could be developed in the future that would use fairytales to deepen understanding of resilience while addressing the learning outcomes in early childhood teacher preparation programs. 

This was from Happily Ever After: The Resolution of Trauma in Fairy Tales.   

Fairy tales rock!

New fairy tale film started! A loose adaptation of King Thrushbeard

 

Fun doing some silly voices for our upcoming fairy tale, "Gnarly Inside."

 A bit sweaty doing some VO with air conditioner turned off.

Looking forward to sharing this short film with festivals, and then teachers!