Through Emotions to Maturity: Psychological Readings of Fairy Tales

Throughout her work, Verena Kast has stressed the importance of emotions. If we don't take them seriously and try to avoid them, we become psychological cripples, unable to unfold our true selves and realize our potential.
In Through Emotions to Maturity Dr. Kast looks at eight classic fairy tales that deal with different aspects of emotions which are difficult to endure - anxiety, fear, and angst. In trying to overcome them, we may enter into a symbiotic relationship which gives us the illusion of being protected: by fusing with a group of people, an institution, or another person, etc., we feel safe and sound, while at the same time we suffocate psychologically, losing our freedoms and the ability to grow.
The fairy tales discussed in this volume illustrate the danger of psychological symbiosis as an attempt to escape fear. Yet they also offer alternatives. Originally told for adults, fairy tales stem from dreams and contain the wisdom of our unconscious. If we decipher their images and symbols, they release a knowledge that can be of extreme importance to us. Under Kast's authoritative guidance, fairy tales thus offer us a way out of the cycle of fear and symbiosis.