The Asheville Jung Center is very pleased to announce The Fairy Tale Series with Murray Stein and John Hill. Dr. Stein put together a wonderful collection of Jungian analysis of fairy tales in his book series titled The Psyche’s Stories. The book series is a collection of essays presented by a diverse group of analysts that have a unifying theme of analytical psychology. Currently there are three volumes of The Psyche’s Stories available to read. Murray Stein and John Hill decided to present a 5 seminar course on the topic of Analytical Psychology and Fairy Tales.
Fairy tales belong to the storehouse of collective psychological wisdom mined by humanity for thousands of years. For good reason, depth psychologists like Freud (in “The Uncanny”) and Jung (in “The Spirit Mercurius”) have looked into them for psychological insight. The careful study and interpretation of fairy tales belong to the core of the Jungian tradition, for as M.-L. von Franz states the Jungian view: “Fairy tales are the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes.” The psychic life of humanity is inscribed in these humble and often dismissed narratives. It was Jung’s genius to discover profound psychological and spiritual value in fairy tales as he did in alchemy.
In this series we look at several classic Jungian writings on the interpretation of fairy tales and consider some of the applications Jungian psychoanalysts have made of these interpretations. Authors under consideration, among others, will be C.G. Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz, and Erich Neumann. The classic texts for the seminar will include: “The Spirit Mercurius” by C.G. Jung (CW 13), The Interpretation of Fairy Tales by M.-L. von Franz, and Amor and Psyche by Erich Neumann. To bring in contemporary authors, additional essays will be considered from the three volumes in the Series, published by Chiron Publications, titled Psyche’s Stories.