What is the therapeutic effect of fairy tale therapy?

In fairy tales, known to us from childhood, as a remedy — depending on the plot and the courage of the characters — now rejuvenating apples appeared, then living water, and even a cauldron with milk spouting. Fearless (and sometimes cowardly) heroes, either by courage or by cunning, who achieved their goals, could hardly imagine that she… a fairy tale, thanks to which fairy tale therapy arose, the famous fairy tale therapist, author of the books “Fairy Tales and Fairy Tale Therapy”, “The Book of Fairy-tale Changes” spoke about the magical effect of it; etc. Dmitry SOKOLOV.

A fairy tale helps to sort out personal relationships

— Dmitry Yurievich, what is the secret of the eternity of fairy tales?

— There are several of them. Firstly, over the centuries, people — from the older generation to the younger — from mouth to mouth passed fairy tales, laying in them not only fixed plots, but also psychotypes that are not have changed to this day. Indeed, regardless of who is represented in the fairy tale, the king or the sovereign, his line of behavior is quite predictable, like other heroes.

Secondly, there is nothing invented in a fairy tale. Take, for example, the fairy tale "The Snow Queen". Take a look around and you will see a lot of such Snow Queens: powerful women with controlling emotions who have captured infantile men, in the struggle for which emotional Gerds enter. Here you have all the intricacies of the love triangle, and an indicator of role-playing games in a couple's relationship. What is especially attractive about a fairy tale, in my opinion, is that it is devoid of morality and full of wisdom, which allows you to see the world as it is.

After all, the main — and, what is important, the favorite — heroes are not always positive. Well, tell me, what example can Ivan the Fool or Emelya, lying on the stove, give? Yes, and the methods that they sometimes choose for themselves, to put it mildly, are far from perfect, and spiritual qualities — from an example of morality. However, the tale shows that the methods they use can be very advantageous in life.

— What fairy tales are most loved by people?

— Perhaps, those in which the problem is clearly identified, which is consonant with a person at a certain stage of life, and to be more precise, at the stage of formation, in 20-30 years, when for many questions of creation family, the birth of a child, relationships with all family members become very relevant and sometimes painful. And the answer, as always, can be found in a fairy tale, in the very one where the process of growing up of heroes and their psychotype is visible.

— This is probably the "Gingerbread Man", and "Little Red Riding Hood", and "Cinderella" & hellip;

— … and Ivan Tsarevich, and the Firebird with indications of both male and female initiation, that is, the formation and maturation of the hero throughout the tale. Their structure is different, including individual, but the subtext is very easy to read. For example, familiar from the cradle "Gingerbread Man" is an indicator of how far you can not go far from your parents. But "Cinderella" is not as unambiguous as it might seem at the usual glance, if you look from the point of view of her stepmother, for whom the stepdaughter was just a presumptuous teenager, whom she wanted, by virtue of the nobility of her soul, to direct on the true path. And to say that Cinderella personifies goodness, and the stepmother — evil, would be wrong. They just have different roles.

It is important not to try to draw a moral out of a fairy tale. She is much more interesting. Fairy tale — is a metaphor, morality — is an allegory.

— What is the conclusion?

— To learn the basic stories in life. Fairy language — the language of reality. You have to think about what the relationship of Cinderella with her stepmother, or the seven kids and the Wolf, which refers to … goat family. And, taking an external position, it seeks to grab the kids from maternal caress, which is typical, most often, for a stepfather. As you can see, it is very important not just to know fairy tales, but to be able to translate plots into the plane of reality and back.

The language of fairy tales does not allow lies

— Do you have any favorite fairy tales? 

— I really like shamanic fairy tales, which are close to magical in their structure and sequence of steps. If you look at the shamanic myth, then it denotes the problem that the main character is designed to solve, namely — find the lost soul and bring it back.

In fairy tales, the hero sets off on a long journey, to the Far Far Away kingdom, to bring rejuvenating apples (the feather of the Firebird, dead and living water, etc.). And for this, he overcomes many obstacles, entering into a fight with the same Baba Yaga, who personifies the world of the dead. Therefore, she has a bone leg, and "her nose has grown into the ceiling." Do you know why he is so grown up? Because she balked at them … into the lid of the coffin. And the task of the hero, having been in the kingdom of the dead and having obtained what he wanted, is to return back.
But most of all I like fairy tales that people make up. For me, the most convenient way to talk to a person — is to ask him to tell a story. In it, he will tell about himself what he will not decide on in the most intimate conversation. Fairy-tale language is unusual, because, speaking it, a person is open and will never allow a lie. He can tell a fairy tale about a scarlet flower, but at the same time he will give so much information that it will become clear not only where he works, but also his relationship with others, and the problems that gnaw at him.

It is not uncommon for a person to be diagnosed based on a story told. The symptoms will be troubled, unfinished or tragically ending fairy tales he invented.

— What is the therapeutic effect of fairy tale therapy?

— Therapy lies in the ability (or inability) of a person to retell or, more precisely, to remake his fairy tale. If he composed it, and then realized that he did not like it and he began to invent it again, then he could not only warm his icy heart like Kai, but also simulate his own transformation.