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

From the Introduction:

The Struggle for Meaning.

If we hope to live not just from moment to moment, but in true conciousness of our existence, then our greatest need and most difficult acheivement is to find meaning in our lives...An understanding of the meaning of one's life is not suddenly aquired at a particular age, not even when one has reached chronological maturity. On the contrary, gaining a secure understanding of what the meaning of what one's life may or ought to be is what constitues having attained psychological maturity.

'The enchanted world of fairy tales, with its princesses and stepmothers, its magic forests and wise old kings, has been an integral part of childhood for hundreds of years.

Bettleheim wrote this book to help adults become aware of the irreplaceable 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.'