lows unconscious chains of thought to be produced in order to understand and discover the underlying meanings behind fairytales – particularly on the subjects of family values, romance, secret desires and aspirations.
Bruno Bettelheim's study of fairytales is based on the idea that the tales contain underlying, yet universal patterns that speak to the mind, particularly a child's mind, but also adults by grasping their egos. The idea is that by portraying a world of struggle and conflict to overcome immense difficulties, the child's psyche is engulfed with a model for development – the right way to develop. Bettelheim experimented with children and discovered that they freed themselves through the reading or listening of fairytales that their parents read to them. Their minds filled with dragons, witches, heroes and heroines, these tales stayed vivid in their minds for years to come simply because they were an exciting release. The tales are in the child's brain and relaxing them, subsequently resulting in repressed energy being released, enabling them to participate and fully comprehend the meanings of the 'simple tale'.
The fairytale world is a good model to a child because it is realistic and shadows the then 'modern issues'. They show a world in which evil is a real force and that good does not always triumph. Bettelheim suggests that because the fairytales are so 'matter of fact' in their presentation of evil, they can help children to come to terms with their own unconscious feelings of aggression and hatred, therefore helping to dissemble unconscious conflicts in their mind. A child will not
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