C LIT 128A Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Bruno Bettelheim, Sigmund Freud
Document Summary
Wrote books about child development & holocaust. Believed fairy tales helped children cope with unconscious anxieties & desires. Fairy tales & dreams represent human problems & desires symbolically. Believes that fables, myths, & realistic stories don"t help children learn to solve problems as effectively as traditional fairy tales. For a story to enrich a child"s life it must: Be attuned to his anxieties & aspirations. Give full recognition to his difficulties while suggesting solutions to problems. Promote confidence in himself & the future. Bettelheim found that children find folk fairy tales more satisfying than other children"s stories. Prevalent parental belief: child must be diverted from what troubles him most should only be exposed to the sunny side of things. Bad is just as omnipresent as virtue in fairy tales. In fairy tales a person is either good or bad, not both or in between. Ambiguity & complexities of personality must wait until the child understands differences between people.
