Speaking of Jungian school, people familiar with psychology will think of two concepts: collective unconsciousness and individual unconsciousness. Yes, a lady who understands people's minds with psychology has been studying fairy tales, myths and fables all over the world for many years. He said: "Fairy tales are born in everyone's heart, hiding our deepest wishes. Fairy tales are closely related to the spiritual world of modern people. "
Princess Rose, Golden Bird and Thrushcross King, behind every familiar fairy tale, there is a collective unconscious in the depths of human hearts. Some people will find the part of "teaching bad children" in fairy tales and hope to modify it.
In fact, how did fairy tales come from?
The author told a story. One day, while he was reading in the library in the block, he overheard several housewives chatting. They said that a child went to Switzerland with his father because he was studying abroad. As a result, the child forgot Japanese in Switzerland and spoke German every day. When I returned to China recently, I immediately thought of Japanese, and my grades quickly rose to the top of my class. Housewives relish the story of this "prodigy" and "outstanding teenager". But the author understands that this story is quite different from the fact. The teenager they are talking about is the author's child. It's true that my children went back to Switzerland recently, but I forgot that Japanese will soon be ahead of the class. Why are housewives so keen on this topic with obvious defects in common sense? Perhaps it's because the story fits their subjective imagination. It is not difficult to find that in our fairy tales, there are countless stories of "excellent teenagers" and "prodigies". These * * * expectations have been handed down and become prototypes in fairy tales.
Fairy tales come from folk stories, which are passed down from mouth to mouth, hiding time, place and name, crossing mountains and seas, and are loved by people all over the world. Children can't understand the complex cultural background, but they can read fairy tales, and adults who accept all kinds of information can also find pleasure in fairy tales. Fairy tales can't solve practical problems, but they can give us comfort and inspiration when facing the basic propositions of life such as life and death, love and hate. Jungian analysts believe that this is because fairy tales contain prototypes, which are the oldest and most divorced from the specific era and society. This prototype experience conforms to people's general psychology, so it is accepted by many people and passed down.
If you look at fairy tales, there will be many inconsistencies with reality. For example, in society, we all sing "Only mothers are good", but fairy tales tell you that in Snow White, a mother tried to poison her daughter, and he ruthlessly revealed that in the original version of this story, the mother was herself. In society, we all believe that "diligence can make up for the shortcomings" and "no pains, no gains", but in the fairy tale "Three Textile Women", the laziest girl who can't spin has become a winner. In society, we believe that "words must be kept, actions must be fruitful", but in fairy tales, the frog prince only becomes a prince when the princess is still on the wall. There are as many proverbs in the world as there are fairy tales as counterexamples. Why are fairy tales so illogical to society? According to Jung's analysis, fairy tales show the deeper unconsciousness of human beings.
Let's analyze the prototype from specific fairy tales ~
1. The image of mother in fairy tales
There is a story of Heinzel and Gleiter in Grimm's fairy tales. The woodcutter, his wife and a pair of children live together in this complete and happy family. Until one day, when famine struck, the sleepless woodcutter asked his wife what to do with a sad face. His wife's answer was particularly quick and accurate, and he was very reluctant: throw away both children!
If you are also a kind reader, you will be very surprised at your wife's words. After all, it is your child. Then, the second paragraph of the story explains: "The two children heard what their stepmother said to their father ..." Does this casual message of "Mom is a stepmother" make you sigh and settle down to accept any direction of the story?
However, Hehe's father ruthlessly revealed that in the original version of this story, the mother was herself! More than that, Snow White's notorious mother tried to poison the most beautiful daughter and become the queen of "the first beauty in the world", which turned out to be her own mother. Psychoanalysis holds that when we consider the problem of "mother", there is always a positive and negative duality. But people are only willing to admit that the mother's enthusiasm is the essence of motherhood, and on this basis, culture and society will be formed. Only positive mothers can be promoted in society, but fairy tales remind us of the negativity in people's subconscious.
Good people think that it is inhuman for a biological mother to throw a child! Out of kindness, I silently replaced my biological mother with my stepmother and told my children ... my stepmother was scolded for thousands of years. Like her, the negative images of Facebook also include the ugly old witch in the forest, the wolf in sheep's clothing, and the devil disguised as a bad old man, all of which appear repeatedly in fairy tales, each of which reflects subtle psychological motives.
Motherhood has the duality of giving birth to death and life, which has both positive power to cultivate life and negative power to devour all life and lead to its death. The positive power of motherhood is easily felt, but the negative power lies in its strong support for children, because it hinders children's independence and ultimately limits their development. The growth of children is bound to be accompanied by the separation from their mothers and embark on the road of independent growth.
Mothers do their best for their children at all costs. At home, the mother is very strong, even taking on some responsibilities of the father, urging the children to study and playing the role of strict father. Mother's characteristics are getting less and less. For example, if you don't get along with your child gently, you don't understand your child's mood. On the contrary, weak fathers noticed this and began to pity their children.
On the one hand, children enjoy this material love, on the other hand, they lack the gentleness of human nature and experience ruthlessness. Many mothers will say "for the good of their children" and "for the future of their children", thinking about sending their children to good schools or foster care institutions. They either hold on to their children or give them up completely. The opposite of material overindulgence is often lack of spiritual love. The growth of children is bound to be accompanied by the separation from their mothers and embark on the road of independent growth.
2. Laziness in fairy tales
The story of "Three Spinning Women" in Grimm's Fairy Tales tells that a girl doesn't like spinning, which makes her mother very angry and makes her cry. Just as the queen passed by and asked what was going on, her mother lied to her that her daughter liked spinning too much and kept turning around, so she had to cry. The queen believed it, saying that she just needed a hard-working person to let her daughter enter the palace and turn it as long as she wanted.
After entering the palace, the lazy daughter didn't know what to do and began to cry. At this moment, three strange women appeared. The first woman has big flat feet and is responsible for stepping on the spinning wheel. The second woman has big lips and is responsible for licking wet yarn; The third woman has a wide thumb and is responsible for twisting the thread. Three women helped the girl spin, but they made a deal. If she marries the prince, they will be invited to the wedding reception. The girl agreed to their terms and they continued spinning. What they spun made the queen full of praise, and the queen really let the girl marry the prince.
The girl invited three women at the wedding reception. The prince was very surprised when he saw them and asked them why they looked like this. Three women replied that it was caused by spinning. The prince was shocked and decided never to let his beautiful wife touch the spinning wheel again. End of the story: In this way, the girl got rid of the annoying job of spinning. In this story, the lazy girl succeeded.
On the one hand, everyone regards diligence as a virtue, on the other hand, people create fairy tales of lazy people's success. In ancient times, people needed to keep spinning hard to make a living. Tired people added their wishes to the story of the spinning girl. People put aside rigid morality for the time being and read the story of lazy people's success happily. In the face of cruel life, people pin their wishes on lazy stories.
We modern people say "walk slowly and appreciate slowly", and "slow life" is the smallest laziness. On the long road of life, if you just bury yourself in madness, sometimes you will get farther and farther away from the finish line, and you will find the right direction when you slow down. Studying, writing and working are all like this. If we always want to get better scores and achieve higher achievements than others, then we may not be able to do it. Because in the competition, you will lose your direction and become what others want you to be.
Fairy tales tell many things that are not within the scope of self-determination. In many fairy tales, crises are inexplicable beginnings and inexplicable endings. The protagonist doesn't seem to have made any key decisions, but just insisted on waiting until a certain time, and the turnaround happened quietly. This modesty and passivity of "waiting for the wind", such as the princess sleeping 100 years, is probably the most lacking quality for modern parents and teachers. Many times, the harder parents and teachers work, the more serious their children's symptoms are. So, save the money for cramming and watch more fairy tales.
To sum up, people in the mainstream consciousness pursue Excellence and hate laziness. But the fairy tale of laziness and success comes from people's simple and beautiful wishes in busy work, and there are also stories of creativity in return. Therefore, we love diligence and don't hate laziness. It is not unforgivable to steal a little laziness once in a while.
3. Fatherly love in fairy tales
There is a story of a golden bird in Grimm's fairy tale, which briefly describes the king's mission as a father at the beginning. There is a garden behind the palace. There is a golden apple tree in the garden. When the apples are ripe, write down their number. But every night, there will be an apple missing, and the king will send someone to guard it. The king's possession of golden apples is a symbol of absolute kingship. He not only controls all this, but also expects everything in the world to have good order and norms (check the number of apples). Once he finds that the orders are not strictly observed, he will take measures to correct them.
I talked about the principle of motherhood earlier: it is all-encompassing and has the function of bearing and nurturing. The positive side of motherhood is tenderness and love, and the negative side is control. Paternalistic function is blocking, which is contrary to the integration function of motherhood and will separate things. It divides the world into good and evil, light and darkness, parents and children, and thus establishes order. Father's love is the executor of order and social norms, and it has the power to cultivate children to abide by norms. Only when the inclusive function of motherhood and the function of fatherhood to distinguish good from evil are well balanced can human life be complete.
The positive value of fatherhood can be found in the fairy tale The Frog Prince. The princess wanted to get back the golden ball that fell into the well, and inadvertently made a promise to the frog that she would be her friend and play with her. Unexpectedly, the frog really came to the palace and forced the princess to fulfill her promise. The king's father taught her, "Whatever you promise, you must do it." When the frog offered to lie in bed with the princess, the princess cried in fear. The king said angrily, "No matter who helped you when you were in trouble, don't look down on him in the future!" " "
This clearly shows the role of fatherhood, that is, one must repay kindness and keep his promise. These principles are absolutely inviolable, even if the other person is an ugly frog, he can't find an excuse to escape responsibility. This strict paternal principle brought happiness to later princesses and frog princes.
Just as motherhood has positive and negative duality, so does fatherhood. If the requirements that cannot be violated are too strict, it will often stifle the negativity of life. The Girl Without Hands tells the story of a miller getting poor gradually. He has no property except his mill and a big tree behind it. One day, a strange old man said to the miller, "As long as you promise to give me something behind the mill, I will make you rich." The miller agreed and became rich at once, but it was his daughter who stood behind the mill. It turned out that this strange old man was a demon, trying to take away the miller's daughter's soul with tricks. The devil forced the miller to keep his promise, and he couldn't refuse. The devil ordered the miller to cut off the struggling daughter's hand.
Here, keeping promises also brings destructiveness. Too much emphasis on the principle of patriarchy hinders the function of women. Too much emphasis on maintaining order will obliterate the primitive feelings of human beings.
4. The woman (Anima) and the man (animus) in fairy tales.
There are many themes in fairy tales that the prince and princess live a happy life. Nowadays, many scholars attack too many topics in fairy tales from the perspective of social role change, because these women only belong to the family and are correct from the perspective of consciousness. However, from the perspective of deep psychology, the marriage of the prince and princess in fairy tales does not mean that "it is better to marry well than to do well" between two people in reality, but refers to the task that all men and women must complete in integrating Anima/animus. Generally speaking, excellent people will develop their own male and female characteristics.
Anima is the archetype of female image in men's mind. She makes men have emotional appeal, including feelings, foreseeing intuition, feelings for irrational things, the ability to love, feelings for nature and the relationship with the unconscious. Animus is the prototype of male image in women's mind, and he makes women dare to take it. They are symbols of the soul. If you can't release the depression, you will feel the dryness in the depths of your life. If you are excessively attracted to it, it will lead to the destruction of the real world. Anima/animus's influence is often manifested through repeated conflicts in marriage in real life, but in fairy tales, it is more vividly manifested as a spiral rise of a pair of men and women "meeting, attracting, combining, conflicting, separating and reuniting".
The protagonist of the riddle is a prince, and the protagonist of Thrushcross Mouth King is a princess, but both of them are attracted by the charming and dangerous opposite sex. The princess didn't want to get married, so she gave the suitor three riddles. If the suitor guesses wrong, she will be executed, so she has been single. Until one day, Prince Calaf appeared, and he guessed the riddle. They must risk their lives to meet the challenge. When the real combination comes, the evil and danger of the tempter will be transformed into unparalleled beauty and purity. We are moved by this ending, because it not only shows the matching or success at the social level, but also makes us realize the vitality and perfection at the spiritual level.
After analyzing so much, in fact, fairy tales do not fully conform to the values of "punishing evil and promoting good". They are the embodiment of people's collective unconscious. Tracing back to the source, it is also interesting to explore the psychological interpretation of fairy tales and fables. Adolescence, male and female images and self-realization in fairy tales are all trips to explore the collective subconscious, so I recommend reading the book Psychology of Fairy Tales.
Finally, it ends with a poem by Michiko Yamashita, a first-year student. The name of this poem is "God"
God
Yamashita Michiko
Whether God is happy or not,
Still sad things are in my eyes.
In this world.
If everyone is a good person,
Maybe god will get tired of it, too
Jesus Christ.
Create both wise men and fools.
Just because it's boring