JUNG PODCAST #15 – FAIRY TALES 2
In this episode we continue with Luthi’s analysis of the European Folk Tale. In the previous episode we dealt with the one-dimensionality and the abstract nature of the fairy tale. In this episode, Luthi’s ideas about the depthlessness of the fairy tale is reviewed. These three issues of fairy tales – one-dimensionality, abstractness and depthlessness are all critical aspects in dealing with a Jungian interpretation of the fairy tale. We also deal with why the fairy tale is so important to interpret from a Jungian perspective, primarily because it offers the purest example of the collective unconscious and also gives us a detailed sense of the process of individuation of the human psyche. Finally, this episode has a reading of the text of the classic Grimm’s tale of “The Nixie of the Mill-Pond?, the tale we’ll use as a basis for our first interpretation.

JUNG PODCAST #14 - FAIRY TALES 1
This episode deals with a new and critical issue in our study of Analytical Psychology, that of the interpretation of Fairy Tales. You may ask why we should address this issue? Well, in interpreting the Fairy Tale, we get to examine an example of what von Frantz says is ‘the purest and simplest expression of collective unconscious psychic processes.’ As a dream is a pure example of symbolic material, but more often about the contents of the personal unconscious, the Fairy Tale represents the contents of the collective unconscious, the archetypes. The other critical issue in the interpretation of Fairy Tales is that we see in the tale an example of an individuation process. Working with Fairy Tales takes our knowledge of the psychodynamics and structures of the psyche to a deeper level and, together with the interpretation of dreams and art, enables us to interpret a wide variety of symbolic material such as movies, literature and expressive art.

In this episode, the third and final part on Jung's typology, I cover the tricky issue of determining one's superior function. Also, we understand why Jung argued that the process of differentiation was vital to our individuation as it permits the development of a broader use of all of our typology, by making the four functions more conscious. The episode also deals with the role of the inferior function in our psyche, as a "portal" between the unconscious and consciousness through which we experience the Shadow, the Anima and the Animus (amongst others).