This book analyzes fairy tales through a Freudian psychoanalytical lens. The book is divided into two main sections, the first discussing the value of fairy tales for children and the second presenting psychoanalytical readings of popular fairy tales. Bettelheim argues that fairy tales help children solve certain existential problems and that their extreme violence and ugly emotions serve to deflect from these issues. The book won the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism and the 1977 National Book Award in the category of Contemporary Thought.
Analyzing a wide range of traditional stories, from the Tales of Sindbad to “The Three Little Pigs,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “The Sleeping Beauty,” Bettelheim shows how the fantastical, sometimes cruel, but always deeply significant narrative strands of the classic fairy tales can aid in our greatest human task, that of finding meaning for one’s life.
Bettelheim has been accused of plagiarizing some of the content in this book.
