Personal Fairy Tale Therapy
Fairy Tale Controversy
Did you know that fairy tales have often been the subject of controversy? Several popular fairy tales have been scrutinized, criticized, and even banned from schools and public libraries over the years. By the 1950s, more and more parents began voicing concerns over the violence and sexual content contained in the first editions of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel.
In 2019, it is hard for us to imagine that many of our favorite fairy tales caused so much concern that parents demanded their children not be exposed to the sadistic, murderous and lustful characters portrayed in the pre-Disney, more primitive tales. Beginning in the 1950s, Disney took many liberties with the original fairy tales, not only making them less menacing, but also adapting them for cinematic viewing. So today, most of us have never even seen the original fairy tales.
In his response to all the controversy, Bruno Bettelheim (1976) wrote a summary of his research; The Uses of Enchantment: THE MEANING AND IMPORTANCE OF FAIRY TALES. In that book, Bettelheim defends fairy tales and explains that exposure to danger and hardship in a story prepares children and equips them with coping strategies. Furthermore, exposure to danger in a story makes that danger less of a threat. In other words, fairy tales can be therapeutic.
Therapeutic Fairy Tales?
In the same vein, within the field of psychology, there is a well-known therapeutic technique called Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). There are many strategies used as part of CBT, but there are two I want to highlight here:
My Personal Fairy Tale
As a response to my professor’s recent challenge, I wrote a personal fairy tale that chronicles some of the most depressing, traumatic and tragic events from my life.
It is a bit long for one post so I am going to divide it into two parts that will follow this post. It is an example of how writing, using a different perspective and innocuous exposure helped me to feel more empowered and less troubled by my past unfortunate experiences.
Challenge and Bounty!
I like interaction and I want engagement with my fellow Steemians. I welcome your questions, challenges and comments.
Since I want to encourage your participation, I have set up a 3 STEEM bounty for each of my June 2019 fairy tales posts, including this one. You are welcome to comment on all three posts for a share of the total 9 STEEM.
The bounty will be divided according to the votes accumulated for any of the comments made. I will vote for high quality comments that I think address the topic, and represent true engagement.
Even if I didn't want to, I had to expose my daughter to fairy tales but of course I had to present it in a manner and perspective that I wanted. LOL I grew up with them fairytales and I think I grew up fine, so I said, okay, I'll tell some to my kid. About therapy, I love this concept. Like play therapy, storytelling can be very effective, I bet. Thanks for sharing. Yes, go on ahead with your own fairytale. We'll be here to read all about it. All the best, @cindyhartz, keep steeming!
Yes! Storytelling is very effective for adults and children. In my next fairy tale posts I will demonstrate just one way to use storytelling as therapy. Thank you for all your support! Love being a Plankton member!
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There is a lot of controversy now about fantasy for kids. A lot of what you find on yt for kids is nsfw and the parents do not even know the kids are seeing it.
I never got too much into fairy tales as a child or parent. But I did not like Disney for always having the parents be dead.
YT for kids? Not familiar. You don’t mean TV, do you? Never even thought about Disney killed off the parents until you put it on my radar! Wow!
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No I mean yt. Little girls are watching make up videos and learning about oral sex, for one example. The parents think it is is only about make up and do not look. I do not have small kids now, but I have seen some posts about in randomly. All kinds of sick people want to get to kids. Since they are all glued to their tablets and phones now, they are easy marks.
OK!! You mean YouTube, right?!!!! I’m a little slow sometimes!
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Yes, You Tube :)
I've always known that fairytales are misleading or misguiding, probably what I was thought growing up :)
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Do you think you thought they were misleading on your own, or did adults teach you to be skeptical about them?
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My statement says it all. I was taught so.
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Your first reply said you thought it, so I was not certain what you meant! 😉
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Oh! I get your point now.
Sorry, English isn't my first language though I've been able to learn but sometimes, I still confuse the words 😉
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Cool! 😉
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Classic example: Grimms' Fairy Tales, originally Children's and Household Tales, which was not really suitable for children's, very cruel stories, they were criticized for that. But they just tried to recreate old fairy tales patterns. Goodness almost always wins but u also need to learn that evil exist. Life is not always easy path. Nowadays young people getting surprised when they growing up, cause all the children stories are too easy and sweet, not like life.
@gerber, thank you for your thoughtful comment! Bettelheim said something very similar to what you are saying!
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A lot of these fairytales are based on the Brothers Grimm. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm
In these stories were based on the brothers traveling around the country sides and gathering stories from oral storytellers.
Back in the day fairytales were used as warnings and metaphors. I think a lot of those warnings and metaphors are lost in modern time, but the story still holds. Also, fairytales provide a soft psychological way to warn people not to do something and to encourage them to live noble lives.
The little mermaid for example was actually a much more gruesome tale ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Mermaid ), however Disney ended up making it sweet and happy as we are cushioning kids from the real world too much.
Look forward to reading your other articles!
Thank you @jacuzzi! I really appreciate your thoughtful comment! Yes! The original Little Mermaid tale was very gruesome! The Grimm brothers were just trying to record the stories. And you’re right, that is how people learned to survive in much earlier times. I think we need modern fairy tales - if we had those, most of the villains would be scammers and politicians!
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Or it could be way better world. Fairy tales were mixture of reality and fantasy, is it good if we going to cut reality from it. Escaping from reality and creating world of illusions is not a solution. Of course reality change over time, we not living in medieval times anymore. We should adapt not escape.
People escaping from anything that causes fear/sorrow/anger, to the level where world is just an illusion. I always like to say that truth doesn't exist anymore, especially when people starts talking politics. But going back to Therapeutic Fairy Tales, like u said in your post going through our problems is much more effective than escaping from them. Even support groups may be example here.
I never talked about my problems, i keep them hidden in my head. I know that's not the solution but also i have awareness that there is no one who could help me, i need to deal with it by myself.
Yes to what you are saying about a better world! I am currently working on some children's books that are for the soul/sole purpose of helping children feel better about themselves and to teach them to be kind to each other and animals!
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Dear cindy, you just landed in the steemterminal and posted this fairy 🧚♀️ blog and I went here to read. It’s a nice approach to it. Cause like SLEEPING BEAUTY that betrayal cause when I sleep I am all of it but nothing beauty about it!
@brittandjosie! Ha ha! Good one! My next two fairy tale posts will actually be quite serious, as you will see how I used a fairy tale style to tell about dad experiences in my life. I’m very happy these days, because I walk my talk. I’m truly hoping to help others with my work. 😘
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@cindyhartz, If Fairy Tale is inspiring and motivating then it's fine but there were many and still available which are misguiding and in a way it push children towards the deceptive world and inturn it's an difficult situation for parents and children at the same time.
Disney is mysterious and controversial world.
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Yes @chireerocks! I have made it my mission to write stories that help children feel better about themselves. In this particular case I am using the traditional fairy tale style to tell about some very unfortunate experiences. The next two fairy tale posts are accounts of actual life events. Using fairy tale style and narrator voice helps the storyteller gain a little more distance and power over the events. Once my next fairy tale posts are revealed, it will be a clear example of how people can use storytelling as therapy!
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Definitely, we should use the tools of expression as a Therapy.
Exactly! 👍
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Thank you. 🙂👍
Quite a thoughtful post, I agree with the fact that fairy tales should have some kind of control as children's world are supposed to plain and safe.
Ah @vibesforlife! If we shield children from everything, how will they know how to thrive in times of difficulty? 😉
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I agree there but it should be done graudually - a 5 year old should see less of the bad stuff in cartoon or tv, but a ten year should see some of it, so maybe this should be transitional, otherwise sometimes bad stuff can cause a emotional injury to kid if shown in very early stages - like when they are below 5.
I know a lot about fairy tales and what Disney made out of most ofvthem I do not like.
Fairy tales were not meant for children but for adults, these were life lessons.
I wonder where these parents lived I asume in.the USA?
A story will never make a serial killer out of your kid. The way you raise it, religion and education does in combination with a certain character (or lack of it).
Tom & Jerry, the Looney tunes, Woody Woodpecker, WE Coyote are all very agressive too. It did not raise two generations of gun fighters, killers, dynamite lovers worldwide.
If you cannot raise your child do not blame a book or television or a game for it. Blame the fact you are not raising your own child but society does.
@wakeupkitty, excellent point! Many of the problems we face today is that parents are not parenting, and it leaves society with the responsibility. Then it is a roll of the dice what influences will have the most impact on the neglected child. I feel a calling to write stories for these children to help them feel better about themselves. As for the old fairy tales, they are from all over the world. The Grimm brothers were from Germany and traveled throughout the country to collect the tales for their book.
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Go ahead writing. I fairy tales I know how the first ones were. I always told my children tales and (re)wrote many. Already as a kid I questioned a lot.
None of my children changed into.a cruel person. One played Wolfenstein (computer game), she is not killing Germans or German sheppards, even has one herself.
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