The Theory of Psychoanalysis

by C. G. Jung

This explanation is as much in harmony with the capacity of childish understanding, as it is perfectly consonant with the history of the motive of this fairy-tale. The motive of the Sleeping Beauty shows clearly its relation to an ancient myth of Spring and fertility, and contains at the same time a problem which has a remarkably close affinity to the psychological situation of the precocious girl of eleven.

This motive of the Sleeping Beauty belongs to a whole cycle of legends in which a virgin, closely guarded by a dragon, is delivered by a hero. Without entering into the interpretation of this myth, I want to bring into prominence the astronomical or meteorological components which are very clearly demonstrated in the Edda. In the form of a virgin, the Earth is kept prisoner by the winter, covered in ice and snow. The young Spring-Sun, in the form of a hero, delivers her out of her frosty prison, where she has been longing for her deliverer.

The association given by the little girl was chosen by her simply to give an example of a fairy-tale without a meaning, and was not, in the first place, conceived as having any relation with the house on fire. To this part of the dream, she only made the observation: “It is quite marvellous, just like a fairy-tale.” She meant to say it was impossible, as the idea of burning stones is to her something impossible, some nonsense, or something like a fairy-tale. The observation made a propos of this shows her that an impossibility and a fairy-tale are only partly identical, since a fairy-tale certainly has much meaning. Although this particular fairy-tale, from the casual way in which it was mentioned, seemed to have no apparent relation to the dream, we have to pay special attention to it, as it was given spontaneously in the course of the interpretation of the dream. The unconscious suggested this example, which cannot be accidental, but must be in some way significant for the present situation. In interpreting dreams we have to pay attention to such apparent accidents, since in psychology we find no blind chances, much as we are inclined to think these things accidental. From the critics, you may hear this objection as often as you like, but for a really scientific mind there are only causal relationships and no accidents. From the fact that the little girl chose the example of the Sleeping Beauty we may conclude that there was some fundamental reason underlying this in the psychology of the child. This reason is a comparison, or partial identification, of herself with the Sleeping Beauty; in other words, there is in the soul of the child a complex, which manifests itself in the form of the motive of the Sleeping Beauty. The explanation, which I mentioned before, which was given to the child, was in harmony with this conclusion.

Notwithstanding she is not quite satisfied, and doubts that all fairy-tales have a meaning. She brings another instance of a fairy-tale, that cannot be understood. She brings the story of little Snow-White, who, in the sleep of death, lies enclosed in a coffin of glass. It is not difficult to see that this fairy-tale belongs to the same kind of myths to which the Sleeping Beauty belongs. The story of little Snow-White in her glass-coffin is at the same time very remarkable in regard to the myth of the seasons. This mythical material chosen by the little girl has reference to an intuitive comparison with the earth, held fast by the winter’s cold, awaiting the liberating sun of spring.

This second example affirms the first one and its explanation. It would be difficult to pretend here that this second example, which accentuates the meaning of the first, has been suggested by the explanation given. The fact that the little girl brought up the story of little Snow-White, as another example of the senselessness of fairy-tales, proves that she did not understand her identification with little Snow-White and the Sleeping Beauty. Therefore we may expect that little Snow-White arose from the same unconscious sources as the Sleeping Beauty, that is, a complex consisting of the expectation of coming events, which are altogether comparable with the deliverance of the earth from the prison of winter and its fertilization through the sunbeams of spring.

As may, perhaps, be known, the symbol of the bull has been given from time immemorial to the fertile spring sun, as the bull embodies the mightiest procreative power. Although without further consideration, it is not easy to find any relation between the insight indirectly gained and the dream, we will hold to what we have found and proceed with the dream. The next part described by the little girl is receiving the doll in her apron. The first association given tells us that her attitude and the whole situation in the dream is like a picture very well known to her, representing a stork flying above a village; children are in the street, holding their aprons, looking up and shouting to him; the stork must bring them a little baby. The little patient adds the observation that several times she wished to have a little brother or sister herself. This material, given spontaneously by the child, stands in a clear and valuable relationship to the motive of the myths. We notice here that the dream is indeed concerned with the problem of the awakening instinct of generation. Nothing of this has been said to the little girl. After a little pause, she brings, abruptly, this association: “Once, when I was five years old, I thought I was in the street and that a bicyclist passed over my stomach.” This highly improbable story proved to be, as it might be expected, a phantasy, which had become a paramnesia. Nothing of this kind had ever happened, but we came to know that at school the little girls lay cross-wise over each other’s bodies, and trampled with their legs.

Whoever has read the analyses of children published by Freud and myself will observe the same “leit-motif” of trampling; to this must be attributed a sexual undercurrent. This conception demonstrated in our former work agrees with the next association of our little patient: “I should prefer a real child to a doll.”

This most remarkable material brought by the child in connection with the phantasy of the stork, refers to typical childish attempts at the sexual theory, and betrays where we have to look for the actual phantasies of the child.

It is of interest to know, that this “motive of trampling” can be illustrated through mythology. I have brought together the proofs in my work on the libido theory. The utilization of these early infantile phantasies in the dream, the existence of the paramnesia of the bicyclist, and the expectation expressed by the motive of the Sleeping Beauty show that the interests of the child dwell chiefly on certain problems which must be solved. Probably the fact that the libido has been attracted by the problem of generation has been the reason of her lack of attention at school, through which she fell behind. This problem is very often seen in girls between the ages of twelve and thirteen. I could demonstrate this to you by some special cases published under the title of “Beitrag zur Psychologie des Gerüchtes” in the Zentralblatt für Psychoanalyse. The frequent occurrence of the problem at this age is the cause of the indecent talk among all sorts of children and the attempts at mutual enlightenment, which are naturally far from beautiful, and which so very often spoil the child’s imagination. Not the most careful protection can prevent children from some day discovering the great secret, and then probably in the dirtiest way. Therefore it would be much better if children could learn about certain important secrets of life in a clean way and at suitable times, so that they would not need to be enlightened by their playmates, too often in very ugly ways.

In the eighth interview the little girl began by remarking that she had understood perfectly why it was still impossible for her to have a child and therefore she had renounced all idea of it. But she does not make a good impression this time. We get to know that she has told her teacher a falsehood. She had been late to school, and told her teacher that she was late because she was obliged to accompany her father. But in reality, she had been lazy, got up too late and was thus late for school. She told a lie, and was afraid of losing the teacher’s favor by telling the truth. This sudden moral defect in our little patient requires an explanation. According to the fundamentals of psychoanalysis, this sudden and striking weakness can only follow from the patient’s not drawing the logical consequences from the analysis but rather looking for other easier possibilities.