MiroMente

Folkloristic Methods in Dreams Interpretation

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Abstract

The current paper deals with the affinity between dreams and fairy tales by using methods taken from the folk literature discipline. In the search to define common meeting points between literature and psychoanalysis, the most popular tendency has been towards psychological interpretation of literary genres. The current paper describes the opposite process, in which a mental product – the dream – is given a literary treatment. This process reflects the assumption that literary and folkloristic interpretations, which focus on aesthetic, collective and universal aspects of dreams, might have an important contribution to make, both on a Read more

ChagalFiaba

Presentation, The Ordering Function of Thought in Folktales

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Each of the articles in the volume relates to unique aspects regarding the affinity existing between fairy tales, or tales which share common characteristics with folktales, and the therapeutic process – either individual therapy, or a group workshop. Several articles in this issue deal with the ways in which fairy tales function in the therapeutic process.
The connecting thread of the articles is the use of the fairy tale as a “mediating object” in psychotherapy, as well as in educational situations: fairy tales convey profound topics, both in therapeutic and educational contexts and provide indirect access to these topics.  Lafforgue, citing Kaës, defines them as a “prêt-porter” for thinking, emphasizing their “ordering function”. Read more

ChagalFiaba

Wandering through the dark forest: dreams and fairy tales in a group workshop

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Abstract

The paper touches upon the role that fairy tales play in a group therapy, as it works through processes relating to dream contents.  It exemplifies the way in which the interdisciplinary dialogue existing between group analysis and folklore research provides some interpretative options that would be unavailable unless one is familiar with the collective material existing in fairy tales. The example presented in the paper deals with the tale ‘Hansel and Gretel’, and demonstrates the way in which fairy tales are, in some cases, so integral to the shared cultural repertoire that it is almost impossible to deal with the dream narrative without relating its contents. The paper demonstrates the ways in which fairy tales and dreams might present a complementary or even compensatory dialogue, similarly to the way in which different voices in the group portray the outlines of conflicts and dynamics that the group will be occupied with in the phases to come. It is possible that this example Read more