For most people, a fairy tale remains one of the best childhood memories for the rest of their lives. This is an exciting story with magic and specific characters, which always ends with the victory of good over evil. But few people know that recently this folklore genre has been actively used in psychology and pedagogy as an integral element of a correctional course. In 1997, a new direction in this area was officially registered - fairy tale therapy, which today is actively developing and showing good results.
What it is
In psychology, there is a direction of art therapy, based on the use of art and creativity as correctional techniques, since they have a powerful effect on the psycho-emotional state of patients. She is proficient in various techniques: bibliotherapy, music therapy, drama therapy, dance therapy, puppet therapy, clay therapy, and fairy tale therapy.
Fairytale therapy is a psychological impact on a person through fairy tales. Promotes the development of a positive and multifaceted personality, helps correct some problems, eliminate fears and internal complexes.
It is based on the process of building mental, sometimes even unconscious connections between the characters, plot and actions in a fairy tale and what happens in reality. This is a kind of hint on how to do the right thing, which path to choose and evaluate yourself from the outside. Has no age restrictions. Children are subject to the greatest influence, but when working with adults, sometimes more profound results are discovered.
In psychology, this is, first of all, one of the many tools that allows an individual to understand the tangle of his own problems and find the right solutions in a difficult situation. This is where fairy tale therapy is a method that is often used to work with adults.
Why do men, even at an advanced age, call their women princesses, and the latter spend their entire lives looking for their prince on a white horse? Psychologists believe that mythologized standard images from fairy tales are triggered. If used correctly, they help solve the most complex and confusing psychological problems.
In pedagogy, this is a method that allows you to correct the development of a child’s personality and direct him in the right direction. It is believed that without this genre, children develop incorrect life values and priorities. To improve your inner self, it is imperative to draw a line between good and evil. And the easiest way to do this is with the help of fairy tale therapy.
It acquires particular significance in early preschool age, when all these images fall on the subcortex of the child’s consciousness. If they are carefully selected by specialists, in the future such children will have much fewer problems with socialization and determining their place in life.
To work with patients, the texts of new fairy tales are most often used, specially designed to eliminate a particular problem, aimed at a certain age. They are usually patented in numerous copyright schools. However, some experts also use the well-known stories of “Turnip”, “Teremka”, “Ryaba Hen”, although this approach is actively criticized and does not always find support.
Possibilities of fairy tale therapy
Fairytale therapy for children aged 4 to 10 can have a psychotherapeutic effect on their consciousness. The purpose of such influence is to correct the child’s behavioral reactions to a particular situation or problem, to work through children’s fears and phobias that have arisen.
This method of influencing the child’s psyche has the following capabilities:
- Fairytale therapy Fairy tales can act as a tool for transferring experience from an adult to a child, his skills and abilities, the concept of the meaning of life, an understanding of what is good and what is bad. Many fairy tales, familiar to us from childhood, are thoroughly permeated with allegories that help the child learn to solve the problems of life situations as they arise.
- Correction of certain mental states of the child.
- This method can act as an opportunity to select therapeutic methods for clarifying the deformation processes of the human soul. This technique is especially good for children aged 4 to 7 years.
- Resourcefulness. In training practices, one can come across a manifestation of this possibility, when a fairy tale is composed by complete strangers to each other. But in the end they receive an answer to the client’s request.
Goals
Depending on the science in which fairy tale therapy is used and for what age the person is, it can pursue different goals.
In psychology:
- eradication of fears;
- impact on personality through unconscious associations;
- activation of mental defense mechanisms;
- assistance in choosing the right solution;
- programming a person’s life plan for the future;
- the fight against complexes and personality disorders, even such serious ones as anorexia, bulimia and suicidal tendencies.
In pedagogy:
- as a method of psychological correction of deviant behavior in adolescents for the formation of correct values;
- eliminating childhood problems such as phobias and self-doubt;
- character correction;
- improvement of internal state;
- instilling correct social stereotypes using the example of positive fairy-tale characters;
- building “morally correct” behavior;
- development of creative abilities;
- increased low self-esteem;
- developing a belief in positive problem solving.
In addition, fairy tale therapy is even used in speech therapy (speech development classes). It is believed that it helps to develop and improve in preschoolers:
- sound and semantic speech;
- phonemic awareness;
- articulation;
- differentiation of sounds, their introduction into speech;
- syllabic structure of words;
- sentence structure;
- the ability to formulate coherent statements (common sentences, dialogic speech, retelling).
When using it as a means of shaping speech development, children are given approximately the following tasks:
- complete the proposed fairy tale;
- come up with and tell your story from start to finish;
- repeat after fairy-tale characters some sounds, words or whole sentences;
- depict the sounds of nature.
In any of the cases described above, the goal of fairy tale therapy is the formation of the correct image (moral, verbal, behavioral) in accordance with the plot and characters of the chosen story.
Principles
The entire technology of fairy tale therapy is based on 4 basic principles.
Principle 1. Values
The main thing is to convey to a person’s consciousness information about the correct life values that he should be guided by in any situation when making decisions. After reading the fairy tale, you should definitely discuss such of them as mutual assistance, love, friendship, compassion, truth, faith, dignity, humanity, kindness.
Principle 2. Life force
After a person has mastered the basic values, work is done to realize that any action requires inner strength. Everyone has it, but for most it’s like a door blocked with stones (problems, doubts, disappointments, psychological traumas). You can understand that love, faith, hope are the stronghold of existence, but at the same time do nothing to ensure that they enter life. The fairytale therapist helps the patient realize his own inner strength and free himself from such blockages.
Principle 3. Versatility
The psychologist sorts out each fairy tale, covering the plot and characters from different positions. This is done so that a person understands that one cannot see only bad things in the world. Any event can be viewed from different angles and positive aspects can be found in it.
Principle 4. Two realities
Fairy tale therapy creates two realities in a person’s mind: fairy-tale (mental) and everyday (social). The specialist’s task is to weave the resources of the former into the patient’s life practice through associations.
Methods
The following methods are used to implement these principles.
- Story
First, the psychologist tells the story. After some time, he asks his interlocutor to retell to him what he remembered. Those moments that he will describe more vividly and in detail will make it possible to understand what painful accentuations and patterns he has.
- Illustration
Typically used with children, although sometimes also for adults. After reading a fairy tale, the psychologist asks to draw an illustration for it. Either arbitrarily, or some specific event (which was woven in specifically to reveal the patient’s internal problems), or a character. Here the choice of plot, hero, shades, dynamics of the depicted is assessed. If the good prince is drawn schematically and not at all brightly, and Koschey is drawn in the smallest detail and in the center of the picture, a shift in value guidelines will be obvious.
- Fairytale therapeutic diagnostics
One of the most complex methods most often used in working with adults. The psychologist offers unexpected questions on seemingly completely simple subjects. If we take well-known Russian folk tales, we can give the following example.
If a person whose family is collapsing due to housing problems (young spouses are forced to live with their parents and are constantly in conflict with them) turned to a psychologist. Reading "Teremok". Positive moments are mentioned (how completely different animals found shelter in a small tower in a large forest and got along together). During the analysis, an analogy with a hostel is drawn. Why were animals able to find a common language with each other in a fairy tale, but people sometimes cannot do this?
There are other methods - composing your own fairy tale (the points on which the emphasis is placed are taken into account, as well as the ending), a puppet workshop (similar to drawing), a theatrical performance, or at least role-playing (here the psychologist looks at what character the person has tried on). , how he justified his choice, how he played).
Why do we need fairy tale therapy?
Every adult, having already had his own child, at least once in his life thought about how to raise him into a successful, happy and healthy person. And every parent asked himself the question: “What methods are needed for a child so that in adulthood he can cope independently with life’s problems?” The answer to this question is fully justified by the concept of fairy tale therapy. This is a modern technique that is considered the best of all existing pedagogical techniques. This method is based not on simple storytelling, but on analysis, in which the beginning and end of the tale are invented.
Children's fairytale therapy can teach a child to adapt to life situations, solve any problems that arise independently, and communicate with people.
What is a fairy tale? A fairy tale for a child is a stream of information that he hears for the first time in his life. First, he hears it from his parents and, before reaching school age, learns to solve his problems independently, or rather, takes the first steps on this path. And the more fairy tales a child hears from his parents at an early age, the easier it will be for him to follow a similar path.
Psychological schools
Despite the fact that fairy tale therapy as a separate direction in psychology took shape only in 1997, already before that the influence of this genre on personality development was considered in various psychological schools.
Carl Jung
Swiss psychiatrist, psychologist, teacher. School of Analytical Psychology. He proved that in his behavior and when making responsible decisions, a person often acts unconsciously (he cannot explain why he did what he did), but is guided by mythologies and archetypes from fairy tales.
As a child, the boy was constantly read the same fairy tale - about Rapunzel. And in the future, he chose women only with long hair. The child grew up reading scary fairy tales and subsequently began to get involved in extreme sports in order to experience the feeling of fear and a surge of adrenaline again and again.
Eric Bern
American psychologist, psychiatrist. School of transactional and scenario analysis. He developed his own fairy tales, calling them counter-scenarios. They acted as follows. Bern believed that every person is programmed from childhood to follow a typical path, and rarely does anyone manage to turn off it on their own. For some, this path is positive, leading to success (mentally and morally healthy people), while for others it is negative (under the influence of psychological trauma, internal complexes).
For example, for a girl, all the guys she started dating ended up abusing alcohol. All because her father drank and thus seemed to program his daughter’s life path for such a fate. Byrne used fairy tales to show his patients a possible alternative to the development of events.
D. B. Elkonin
Soviet psychologist who worked in the field of child and educational psychology. The theory of activity approach. He selected fairy tales for problem children in such a way that they could form in them “morally correct” behavior that would fit into the framework of society. So that a child does not leave home and obeys his parents - read “Kolobok”, so that he understands the success of collective work and mutual assistance - “Turnip”, and is kind and sincere - “Morozko”.
Kinds
Different types of fairy tales are used for correction.
- Artistic
Folklore, national, most often known to everyone. Versatile. If played correctly, they can be adapted by a specialist to literally any person. For example, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” is used to correct the abnormal behavior of a spoiled child who does not yet understand what unbridled desires can lead to. The same work is used in fairy tale therapy for those adults whose financial problems are ruining their family life, for henpecked men and wives who cannot stop making demands. However, such fairy tales are not applicable to solving deep problems.
- Psychocorrectional
They are used in pedagogy to correct a certain character trait: cowardice, laziness, capriciousness, aggressiveness. They differ from artistic ones in that they are developed and selected for a specific person.
- Psychotherapeutic
The main tool for fairy tale therapy for preschoolers. They are used for a multifaceted impact on the personality of a problem child in order to eliminate phobias and smooth out the consequences of traumatic factors. They can be universal (for example, to combat the fear of darkness or thunderstorms) and individual, designed for a specific case.
- Meditative
Sometimes a person does not have pronounced negative character traits, complexes or phobias. At the same time, values and priorities are formed correctly. However, problems with social adaptation constantly arise; he cannot overcome his depressive state. This happens in both children and adults. To understand the reason for what is happening, the psychologist selects this type of fairy tale. There are no conflicts or evil in them. They are philosophical, aimed at relaxation, within the framework of which it is possible to reveal what oppresses the patient.
- Didactic
They are part of the educational program in kindergartens and schools. In addition to identifying and solving psychological problems, they are aimed at the comprehensive development of the child. Can perform several tasks at once.
To date, dozens of original fairy tale therapy programs have been developed - for children, adolescents, and adults. Not only psychologists use them in their work. They help work in schools, kindergartens, rehabilitation centers for the disabled and children with deviant behavior, correctional institutions, and universities. The most famous are Sakovich and Lisinoy.
The program of doctor-psychologist Zinkevich-Evstigneeva called complex fairy tale therapy has become especially widespread. It was patented in 1998. Provides rapid, long-term and deep psychological assistance to children, adolescents and adults. Today, Complex Fairytale Therapy Centers are open and successfully operating in the UK, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland, and China.
Meditative tales
These are relaxing stories that are usually read to children at bedtime. The plot should be calm and conflict-free. It is important to choose the right colors in the description so that the baby can imagine them and fall asleep peacefully. Green, blue, blue colors will help you relax, lower your heart rate, and expand your capillaries.
Meditative fairy tales are close in their effect to hypnosis, which puts a person into an alpha state, in which the most complex problems are solved, contradictions are eliminated, and a leap in mental development occurs. In a state of alpha and theta rhythms, the consciousness works, and the body is completely relaxed. In the future, the child will look for this magical state to relieve stress after a working day and resolve family conflicts.
Age characteristics
For preschoolers
Fairytale therapy for preschool children is an obligatory part of the educational process in kindergarten. It teaches you to differentiate between good and evil and forms correct values.
For children 2-3 years old
Fairy tales for fairytale therapy help them adapt to kindergarten, wean themselves from the constant presence of their parents, relieve emotional and muscle tension, and reduce feelings of fear and anxiety. Along the way, they are aimed at developing speech, attention, imagination and perception. An example of a fairy tale is “How the little elephant Styopka went to kindergarten.”
For children 3-4 years old
The goal of fairy tale therapy at this age is to develop the skills of full communication with others through improving speech and the ability to negotiate with peers and adults. Children learn to listen, retell, and most importantly - empathize with the characters, distinguish the bad from the good. Here you can use the famous fairy tales “Geese and Swans”, “Kolobok”, “Turnip”.
For children 5-6 years old
At this age, the first complexes and fears begin to form. The task of fairy tale therapy is to cope with them. Along the way, fairy tales relax, allow the child to realize that he is not alone in experiencing such problems, and most importantly, they are all surmountable. An example of a fairy tale: “About Darkness-Darkness.”
For younger students
Fairytale therapy for children 6-7 years old solves more global problems. Firstly, we need to help adapt to the new conditions of existence within the school walls. Secondly, in a more playful form that is closer to children, continue to develop memory, speech, attention, and imagination. Thirdly, teach goal setting. At the initial stage of education, all this is still relevant: children listen with interest to the author’s, unfamiliar fairy tales and are open to their perception.
School psychologists must include fairy tale therapy in their work with primary school students. Moreover, the work can be both collective (give everyone the task of composing a fairy tale) and individual (with difficult children characterized by deviant behavior or poorly adapting to new conditions).
In the future, for middle school students, fairy tale therapy is used less and less as a group work. There, psychologists begin to select texts in accordance with the problem and personality of each individual child.
For teenagers
Adolescence is one of the most difficult and unpredictable periods when children try to find and find themselves. Suicides, anorexia, informal groups, illegal substances, deviant behavior - fairytale therapy will help to cope with all this. At this stage, it contributes to the development of self-interest, stimulation of creative self-expression and reflection.
If teenagers do not want to listen to a fairy tale, it is not necessary to insist on this term. Call the text a parable or an interesting story. Examples: “Flamingo, or the Rock of Wishes” (overcoming insecurity), “The Tale of True Color” (getting rid of suicidal thoughts), “Cheek” (fighting low self-esteem).
As for fairy tale therapy for adults, in this area exclusively individual work is carried out with a narrowly focused specialist.
Text of the book “Fairy tale therapy in the work of a psychologist”
Oksana Zashirinskaya Fairytale therapy in the work of a psychologist: an educational manual
ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY
Reviewers:
Doctor of Psychology sciences, prof. N. V. Dmitrieva
(SPbGIPSR);
Doctor of Psychology sciences, prof. S. I. Kostromina
(SPbSU)
Recommended for publication by the Educational and Methodological Commission of the Faculty of Psychology of St. Petersburg State University
Preface
I mastered the divine, pored over philosophy, studied jurisprudence, and studied medicine. However, I was and still am a fool. I've been a master's degree student, a doctorate student, and for ten years I've been leading students by the nose, like a book reader, interpreting the subject this way and that. But it cannot give knowledge, And this conclusion... gnaws at the heart...
Goethe, “Faust” (trans. B. Pasternak)
Why do books on fairy tale therapy attract the attention of readers? This interest can be explained by several reasons. Firstly, each of us wants to live “happily ever after.”
You can engage in introspection throughout your entire adult life, but only by drawing on the centuries-old experience of people will you be able to answer questions about the meaning of your own life.
The fairy tale reflects the ethnoculture of many generations of people, and its morality can act as a teacher, mentor - you just have to trust it and get rid of some social stereotypes. Secondly, it’s very tempting to “drink honey and drink beer,” so that it flows down your mustache and into your mouth. The realization of the desire for an eternal holiday is inherent in human nature.
The carnivalization of everyday life has a psychotherapeutic orientation.
Here, a lot depends on the internal attitudes towards creating your closest significant environment. Social role and environment will promote or hinder a person’s self-realization. In this context, it is appropriate to recall the Russian proverb: trust in God, but don’t make a mistake yourself. First, we grow, mature, gain experience, become smarter - and as a result, we become able to create something with our own hands and intellect. A creative person is initially set up for a celebration of the soul and an optimistic worldview. He doesn't need to be convinced of this. Exteriorization occurs (from the Latin exterior
- external, external) - the process of transition of the internal state into external, objective activity.
What do we transfer to the external plane? Of course, striving for the best. Let life be a fairy tale. Thirdly, we try to improve our own appearance.
You won’t have to bathe in milk; we’ll leave it for other needs. Let us also not agree with the psychologist who begins creating an image with external attributes. Even a behaviorist will be stronger than a stylist and fashion designer here. We will try to conduct self-diagnosis using the material of fairy tales, critically comprehend the wisdom of folk and original works, conduct introspection and decide on a strategy for self-development and psycho-correction. A person's external beauty is always associated with his intellectual abilities. Sooner or later, every person has to think seriously about his inner world: to organize it, to outline lines of growth on the scale of the “I”. The development of communication ability is also taken into account. After this, you can begin to improve your personality.
It turns out that, thanks to fairy tales, we have in our hands a real life tutorial. You can just read and engage in self-development.
Let us highlight some key characteristics of this fairytale therapy course:
• the book presents practical experience in teaching the course “Fairy tale therapy for children and parents” at the Faculty of Psychology of St. Petersburg State University;
• it is shown that any practical lesson can be transformed into a creative laboratory in which everyone has the opportunity to speak out and be heard;
• an analysis of Russian folk tales is proposed (one can argue with it, but certain thoughts will be relevant for different readers);
• explains how to independently write fairy tales based on the functions of V. Ya. Propp and modern psychotechnologies.
More detailed educational and methodological materials on fairy tale therapy and the texts of various fairy tales are presented on the website of the author of the book: https://psychosuccess.ru.
Chapter 1 Modern ideas about fairy tale therapy
1.1. Definition of fairy tale therapy
Fairytale therapy is one of the types of art therapy, based on the use of fairy tale texts and implying a psychological impact on people of different ages using the morality of fairy tales.
There are many reasons why a future psychologist has to become familiar with the techniques of professional work with fairy tales.
Firstly,
Everyone knows the fairy tale, “from young to old,” and it is based on its content that the upbringing of a growing person takes place. From preschool age, we try to form the basis of moral consciousness in the child and turn to the experience of many generations of people for answers to eternal questions about good and evil, religious commandments, truth and eternal values of existence.
Secondly,
With its content, the fairy tale develops creative potential and creativity. We are talking about the ability of a child and an adult to be surprised and learn, about the ability to find a solution in non-standard situations, a focus on discovering something new and the ability to deeply understand one’s experience.
Ancient wisdom advises: “Lead an ordinary life in an unusual way.” You can lead an extraordinary life in an ordinary way. By endowing the world with attributes of non-standard, we begin to treat it enthusiastically, to take actions outside of patterns and stereotypes. So we are learning to create! Mysterious things begin to happen to us - “just like in a fairy tale.”
Adults strive to maintain a realistic idea of the world around them and confidently assert: “There are no miracles!” But after reading a fairy tale, there is a feeling that we are capable of more than before getting to know it - the fairy tale captivates a person to such an extent, changing the depths of consciousness. After all, pleasant surprises happen in our lives (like: “The promised one has been waiting for three years!”). Faith in them has not dried up and constantly lives in the soul. This is extremely important, since this creates conditions for the realization of a person’s potential as an individual.
Third,
Thanks to the fairy tale, the process of learning about the world around us is completed. It comes to life for us in new images, associations, and the private, individual is integrated into the history of mentalities (it is good for health to be like everyone else).
Fourthly,
By comprehending the plots of creativity, a person learns to see himself in the actions and thoughts of the heroes living on the pages of a fairy tale. We form a certain opinion about various types of relationships, human characters. The images of the heroes invite us to take part in the process of self-discovery.
Fifthly
, we begin to think in global, universal categories, accepting and using the experience of many generations. It is impossible to understand its laws outside the social environment. A fairy tale, like a guiding star, guides us through the centuries, integrating us into culture.
At sixth
, the perception of fairy-tale collisions helps to activate a person’s existing life experience.
Seventh
, the development of the emotional sphere occurs through the metaphorical forms of embodiment of fairy tales, stories, parables, and anecdotes.
This is accessible to both children and adults: when hearing the words “magic”, “magical”, everyone becomes interested and delighted. The reason for this reaction is the positive motivating semantics of folk and original creativity (Propp,
2001).
Eighth,
A fairy tale is a powerful means of psychocorrection. A person learns not only to find errors in his behavior, communication, activities, but also to model situations of their change, subjecting personal activity to comprehension through introspection in the context of a fairy tale plot.
Ninth,
a scientific synthesis of various psychotherapeutic techniques is being implemented. All of them are organically united by a single fairy-tale narrative. A kind of environmental therapy takes place, a special fairy-tale setting.
Thus, a conceptual thesis suggests itself: a fairy tale creates conditions for the maximum realization of human potential
.
T.D. Zinkevich-Evstigneeva (1998a) identifies the following basic ideas (principles) of fairy-tale therapeutic psychodiagnostics and developmental psychocorrection.
1. Psychodiagnostics using “fairy tale” techniques – projective diagnostics, which allows you to describe both the holistic picture of the personality and its individual problematic and potential elements.
2. Fairytale therapy correction – systematic strengthening of potential and creative abilities that allow one to overcome human problems. It excludes directiveness, an imperative when changing negative forms of behavior. The principle of “expanding the range of alternative reactions” is put forward. For this purpose, many models of behavior are proposed in various situations that can be “lived” or “lost.” The more models, the more flexible the social intelligence, the more successful the socialization process.
It seems that a fairy tale has an unfading value for the mental development of a person. Let's take a closer look at its content, imagining ourselves in the role of an analytical psychologist. The thought may arise that in life there are collisions from fairy tales, and fairy-tale heroes, with their well-known questions and problems, are similar to us. We act out our experience on the stage of everyday life: we perform various social roles, perform in a variety of roles. We are faced with fears, dangers, ups and downs. Once upon a time in childhood we were read many fairy tales about this, and now we unconsciously begin to be guided by them in everyday vicissitudes.
So what is “hidden” in fairy tales, why are they a storehouse of folk wisdom that we strive to join with such pleasure?
1.2. Classifications of fairy tales
Fairy tales have to be differentiated, since they have different mechanisms of psychological influence and influence on a person. These mechanisms do not always lie on the surface, more often they are veiled, hidden, and not immediately accessible to consciousness.
The first type of fairy tales is artistic fairy tales.
From the name it is clear that something amazing will happen in them. We are talking about various options for transformations, powerful elders, caskets and other tempting things. The plot will be very winding and unpredictable, but helpers will appear at any moment. A little more torment and... a happy ending!
The second type of fairy tales is fiction about animals.
The main characters here are various animals, birds, and insects. They live, think and act like people. Everything is real with them too.
The third type of fairy tales is artistic everyday ones.
In them, the action usually takes place in houses, basements, and caves. The main characters are very economical by nature or, on the contrary, destroy their own life. For example:
Hit the plates, hit the sockets!
Dull the forks, bend the knives! About half a bottle! Napkins in the oven! There will be order - just tell me! Tear the tablecloth to pieces, guests! Pour the fat from the cutlets onto the chairs! Throw the bones and crusts under your feet! Spread mustard on your valuable parquet! Cups and glasses - in a vat of boiling water! Use an iron crowbar to turn it around, take it out, throw it away and dry it
-
and throw the whole thing in the trash! Who's idle there? Shame and shame! Hey, be careful, fragile porcelain! John R. R. Tolkien, Song of the Dwarves from the story “The Hobbit” (trans. I. Komarova)
Such stories end with unexpected options and prospects, since much depends on the active characters busy with housework on the pages of the fairy tale. If they do not give in to any positive changes, then they drag out a miserable existence, their life is a joyless everyday life.
The fourth type of fairy tales is artistic horror.
The reader is feared by witches, ghouls, goblins, werewolves, ghouls and other disgusting evil spirits. Only strong nerves can withstand this: these characters are very evil and ugly. With their actions they constantly attract attention, even if they are not the main characters. It’s just that their actions have catastrophic consequences.
It’s getting dark... They’re getting ready for tea...
Asya is dozing under her mother’s fur coat. I'm reading a terrible fairy tale about a terrible toothless witch. About the old witch and the gnomes, About the princess who went into the sunset. How creepy it is to wander in an unfamiliar forest with her blind brother! The sorceress has only one concern: Bring him straight to the abyss! It’s getting dark... Today is Saturday and my mother will be sad. It’s getting dark... You don’t remember the hour. From the dining room they called us to tea, As Asa curled up in a ball, I read a terrible fairy tale. M. Tsvetaeva, “On Saturday”
The fifth type is psychotherapeutic fairy tales.
It talks about various human problems, and everyone can recognize themselves on the pages of a literary work. The content of the fairy tale “heals” us with its ineradicable faith in goodness: if there is poison, then there is a good chance of finding an antidote. We are urged not to rush to conclusions, not to expect a speedy answer to all questions, or instant updates. A fairy tale is a change of plots, life is a long process, a path on which everyone once set out and wanders through the desert and the cracks of the heart. Time heals wounds or erases us from the face of the earth - in any case, this is a certain result. You just need to move forward tirelessly and... who knows how it will all end.
The sixth type is didactic fairy tales.
The content of the plot here is largely educational in nature. These are convenient fairy tales when they told you everything and drew the main conclusions. If you want, you can live according to what is written.
The seventh type is psychocorrective fairy tales.
In this case, they are trying to teach us to be smart. Usually such fairy tales are moralized and end with moral teachings: they say, you warned, you didn’t listen, now you have yourself to blame. And you, dear reader, are not a gift either - go get smart. With its content, the fairy tale fights for positive and rapid changes in human behavior and personality. We are advised to quickly pull ourselves together. Some people really need this. There are also more correct, gentle options for influencing the client, when other people's problems are clearly explained, and you think, decide how to live yourself. If you can't think of anything, ask. Only from whom?
The eighth type is fairy tales for relaxation.
T.D. Zinkevich-Evstigneeva (1998a) notes that they are written with the aim of accumulating positive imaginative experience, relieving psycho-emotional stress, creating better models of relationships, and developing personal potentials.
Relaxation is an immersion in a process aimed at obtaining the effect of calm and relaxation. When we do something passionately (draw, write, play), this can be conditionally mistaken for meditation.
There are general conditions for relaxation:
• the study room should be warm, but not stuffy;
• lighting should be soft and warm, there is no need to achieve complete darkness (this scares many);
• specially selected music for relaxation (sounds of nature with a superimposed melody);
• comfortable position (the “lying down, arms along the body” position is not at all necessary - the client is positioned in a way that is comfortable for him; if a person does not want to close his eyes, there is no need to insist on this);
• the ritual of “entry” and “exit” from a state of relaxation involves leisurely and gradual steps.
Interesting meditative tales on awareness of oneself in the present - “here and now”. The nature of their presentation is a journey. The principle of constructing the plot is as simple as possible: “You and I are transported to an amazingly fairy-tale country, to its very heart - to the Magic Glade. We lie on it and see a high, clear, blue sky above us. We listen to the birds singing and the trees talking, and the brook babbling. We feel the aroma of ripe strawberries and freshly baked bread nearby - it has just been baked by the Good Witch who lives nearby. And if we reach out our hand, we will pick and put a large, aromatic berry in our mouth and feel the sweetness of ripe strawberries. The silky young grass covering the Magic Glade gently tickles our hands, feet, face..."
Descriptive tales told to music also develop imagination and voluntary attention.
1.3. Psychological analysis of the plot of a fairy tale
1. The deep meaning of a fairy tale and its moral are not didactic.
There are no direct moral teachings in fairy tales. Otherwise, the child will strive to do everything differently, contrary to common sense ( Zinkevich-Evstigneeva
, 1998).
For example, remember the fairy tale “The Three Little Pigs”. The most attractive character is the eldest Piglet: he knows how to have fun, build a house, shelter friends, and defend his own and other people’s lives. He flexibly correlates the principle of pleasure with the principle of reality, presenting with his behavior and attitude an absolutely socially adapted being, moreover, with a creative beginning.
Now let’s take I. Krylov’s fable “The Dragonfly and the Ant,” which contains an obvious moral lesson. The ant knows too well: “it’s time for business, time for fun.” The ant is extremely positive, but children, I think, also love the dragonfly and sympathize with it when the ant says: “You kept singing - that’s the point, so go dance!” Children can recognize themselves here: they also play pranks, receive reprimands from their parents and worry about it.
A fairy tale allows you to unconsciously identify yourself with many characters. This means that opportunities arise:
• learn to predict future problems;
• see difficulties in time and eliminate them;
• flexibly combine pleasures with necessary activities, etc.
The fairy tale does not act as a mentor, does not “teach how to live,” but helps to acquire social intelligence, “gently” hinting at problems and prospects for development.
In magical storytelling we often encounter metaphors that always penetrate into the sphere of the unconscious person. Internal potential is activated. A person is looking for a way out of the situation. Metaphor is not directive, it only hints, guides, instructs ( Barker
, 1995). Metaphor:
• creates an aura of psychological security around a person;
• allows a person to rise above his problem, to look from the outside at what is bothering him.
In the process of helping a client, a psychologist receives unique opportunities:
– activate his intuition;
– develop imagination;
– teach to think in the images of a fairy tale story.
The client’s position “gently” changes. One should be very careful with interpretation. For example, there is an Eastern parable:
One eastern ruler had a terrible dream that all his teeth fell out one after another. In great excitement, he called for a dream interpreter. He listened to him with concern and said: “Lord, I have to tell you the sad news - you will lose all your loved ones one by one!” These words aroused the anger of the ruler. He ordered the unfortunate man to be thrown into prison and another interpreter to be called. He, having listened to the dream, said: “I am happy to tell you the good news - you will outlive all your relatives!” The ruler was delighted and generously rewarded the interpreter. The courtiers were very surprised: “You told him the same thing as your unfortunate predecessor!”
To which came the answer: “We both interpreted the dream in the same way.
A lot depends not on what to say, but on how to say it.”
Fairy tales are an unobtrusive educational tool.
They convey moral values and rules of behavior. At the same time, the entertaining adventures of the heroes and the figurative language make even the harshest morality more interesting, acceptable, and safer. A person may suddenly become aware of the connection between a fairy tale story and his behavior. Only in everything you need a sense of proportion, otherwise it will turn out like the character of Jerome K. Jerome: I read a medical encyclopedia and discovered almost all the diseases in myself.
Thus, the impact through metaphor can be profound and surprisingly persistent.
It affects not only the behavioral layers of the psyche, but also its value structure.
2. Collectivity of images.
Uncertainty of the place of action and the name of the main character Remember the traditional beginning of a fairy tale: “In a certain kingdom, in a certain state”... We are immediately warned that such a story could happen anywhere. A certain location of action psychologically distances the reader from the events taking place in a fairy tale - it becomes more difficult for him to transfer himself to a specific place of events, especially if he has never been there.
The main character is a collective image.
The names of the main characters in fairy tales are often repeated. The absence of strict personification allows a more motivated person to identify himself with the main character at his own request. Free creativity and imagination have no boundaries. 3. A fairy tale as a source of life experience and traditions.
Versatility and multi-level of stored information. Imagery of language Thanks to their language, fairy tales are easy to remember. They swarm in front of us like hardworking bees. They are encoded:
• life choice;
• Love;
• fight against evil;
• overcoming oneself;
• responsibility;
• mutual assistance ( Zinkevich-Evstigneeva
, 2001).
Let's imagine a crossroads. The main character has three options for possible actions. In life, you also constantly have to make decisions on various issues. In the fairy tale, the choice is made far from being in favor of the sufferer: instead of wealth, there is a road, and it is associated with serious losses. But thanks to dedication at the end of the fairy tale, the hero turns out to be the richest, happiest, and the “reasonable” participants in the plot lose everything. And rightly so! You cannot be a pragmatist “to the core.”
Does this mean that the fairy tale teaches not reasonable, but some other criteria for choice? A fairy tale contains several meanings, and we unconsciously extract the most important one for ourselves. The perception of a fairy tale can change throughout life: previous experience is supplemented by new, unknown ones. According to N. Pezeshkian (2011), this is how the mechanism for storing personal experience in fairy tales “works.” The versatility of the meanings of the same fairy tale can help a person solve current problems at different periods of life. This makes the patient more independent from the psychologist.
All ages are submissive to fairy tales. Consider, for example, the interpretation of the famous Russian fairy tale “Kolobok”. It depicts the consequences of rash, childish decisions. At 3–5 years old, a child can bear the moral: “You need to listen to adults” (using the example of his age crisis “I myself”). The child may also draw another conclusion - that he needs to be able to do without the help of his parents (self-care, etc.). The teenager will learn to communicate with different types of people: “Hares”, “Bears”, “Koloboks”, “Foxes”. An adult will try to understand the philosophical background of the fairy tale and will pay attention to the causes and consequences of the actions of all the heroes of the fairy tale.
One way or another, worrying with and for the heroes, observing their destinies, living through fairy-tale situations, a person creates his own picture of the world. Based on it, he will perceive various situations and act in a certain way in everyday circumstances.
Children often ask to reread the same fairy tale. Why? It may correspond to the current worldview of the child, who does not easily understand the logic of adults. It is easier to find answers to your age-related questions in fairy-tale situations, images, and plots.
Fairy tales help adults get rid of “pure” logic and a reasonable style of thinking. Creativity allows you to look at the world in a new way. This often helps resolve both external and internal conflicts.
So, adults, students, schoolchildren often learn the material better if an example from life, a metaphor, is offered. Imagery is important for perception.
Recommended books
- Gnezdilov A. V. Author's fairy tale therapy.
- Zinkevich-Evstigneeva T. D. Workshop on fairy tale therapy.
- Kozlova E. G. Fairy tales and tips. Problems for a math club.
- Lomakina G. Fairy tale therapy.
- Prokhorov V., Rubanova S., Otradnova A. The healing power of fairy tales.
- Sakovich N. A. Practice of fairy tale therapy.
- Sokolov D. Fairy tales and fairy tale therapy.
- Stishenko I.V. Fairytale therapy for solving personal problems.
- Tkach R. M. Fairytale therapy for children's problems.
- Tkacheva T. Psychotherapeutic fairy tales for adults and children.
In the above books you can find examples of fairy tales and methodological recommendations on how best to use them in working with adults and children. Despite the fact that not all psychologists share the enthusiasm for the effectiveness of this trend, it is incredibly popular all over the world and over 20 years has helped tens of thousands of people find harmony in their souls and get rid of phobias.
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