Fairy tales may help us face emotions safely

Self-enchantment lets us see life as a meaningful story.

Magical fantasies may even transform us.

Novelist Dale Kushner has entertained a lifelong fascination with the psyche. In her recent book, Wild Freedom, she notes that we can learn from fairy tales and other ancient stories handed down to us over the centuries. They present a record of universal human challenges—fear, jealousy, abandonment, betrayal—and offer a map to navigating these collective struggles. When all seems lost, we can find ourselves through stories.

Can fairy tales and the unconscious mind help us navigate life's challenges?For children as well as adults, fairy tales help us make sense of our lives. They speak the language of the unconscious through images, archetypes, and metaphors. They are simultaneously engaging and delightful tales and also representations of psychological truths about ourselves and the world that transcend cultural and racial differences. Fairy tales invite us to face our difficult emotions indirectly and with a sense of safety. By identifying with characters who confront darkness and emerge transformed, we discover models for resilience, courage, creativity, and hope. Fairy tales remind us that challenges are part of a larger human story and that there is often a silver lining to those challenges if we accept the call to action: unexpected help, insight, transformation.

Do fairy tales offer insight into personal transformation?Yes. Fairy tales are, fundamentally, transformation stories. The stories we get in fairy tales remind us that our wounds are not only personal but also timeless human dilemmas.

As in fairy tales, so in life—transformation begins with a........

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