Breaking the Spell: A Hermeneutical Analysis of Attachment Theory and Complicated Grief in Fairy Tales.

摘要

Fairy tales have been recorded and recited for centuries, providing generations with a rich source of information regarding human experiences and the universality of shared worlds. However, fairy tales are more than a source of the expanded 'golden rules' to expose readers and listeners to the consequences of bad behavior and the multitude of rewards for good behavior; they are windows into the individual and cultural personalities of the worlds depicted in each story. They are narratives that reflect unconscious as well as interpersonal worlds that mirror the human community. Fairy tales point to ways individuals and societies can find healing and wisdom through these narrative presentations. Past analyses from a Jungian perspective have focused on archetypes, or paradigms of primordial motifs and meanings, within these powerful narratives. In this dissertation, in contradistinction to the plethora of Jungian analyses, we will explore fairy tales through a relational psychodynamic lens, with an emphasis on attachment theory as applied to selected stories. In doing so, we will interpret fairy tales from a larger psychological frame of reference. Four fairy tales will he analyzed: Cinderella and The Aged Mother by the Brothers Grimm and The Child in the Grave and Grandmother by Hans Christian Andersen. By using a psychoanalytic hermeneutic lens with a focus on attachment theory in order to examine the phenomenon of complicated grief, or the inability to grieve, we will discern the relevance of relational reading of these fairy tales that will in turn offer new ways of seeing both additional psychological meaning and insight into the nature of complicated grief as depicted in these stories. In utilizing this relational approach with an emphasis on attachment theory to analysis, this dissertation will examine imagery, symbols, and narratives within each story, illustrating how attachment patterns can often shed new light on one's grieving process.;Keywords: fairy tales, complicated grief, attachment theory, hermeneutics