Animus and Anima in Fairy Tales

C.G. Jung once said that the interpretation of fairy tales takes so much energy that afterward one requires a week’s vacation.  That is because fairy tales are powerful stuff when taken seriously, and why they continue to resonate for contemporary readers.  Their simplicity and directness provide insights into the workings of our emotions that are unadorned and inescapable.

Marie-Louise von Franz devoted much of her life to the difficult task of interpreting fairy tales, bringing clarity and earthy good humour to the work.  In this book she focuses on what we can learn from fairy tales about the contrasexual complexes – animus and anima – which inform all our fantasies and behaviour concerning the opposite sex, both inner and outer.

This rich elucidation of the unconscious dynamics operating in relationships – originally a lecture series at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles – was discovered among Dr. von Franz’s unpublished papers after her death.  It is vintage von Franz, sharply insightful and grounded, as always, in lived experience.  Yet another treasure from the master.