The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales

(Paperback)

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Description

The author wrote this book to help adults become aware of the irreplacable importance of fairy tales. By revealing the true content of such stories he shows how children may make use of them to cope with their baffling emotions, whether they be feelings of smallness and helplessness or the anxieties the child feels about strangers and the mysteries of the outside world. Taking the best-known stories in turn, he demonstrates how they work, consciously or unconsciously, to support and free the child.

Reviews

"Bettelheim argues convincingly that fairy tales provide a unique way for children to come to terms with the dilemmas of their inner lives." --"The Atlantic"

"A charming book about enchantment, a profound book about fairy tales." --John Updike, "The New York Times Book Review"
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"A splendid achievement, brimming with useful ideas, with insights into how young children read and understand, and most of all overflowing with a realistic optimism and with an experienced and therapeutic good will." --Harold Bloom, "The New York Review of Books "

"Provocative and persuasive." --"Boston Globe"

Author Bio

Bruno Bettelheim was Professor of Psychology at the University of Chicago from 1944 to 1973. He died in 1990.