The Uses of Enchantment

The Uses of Enchantment

Author	Bruno Bettelheim
Country	United States
Language	English
Publication date	1976
Pages	352
ISBN	978-0-14-013727-9
Dewey Decimal	398.45
LC Class	GR550 .B47

The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales is a 1976 book by Austrian-born American psychologist Bruno Bettelheim in which he analyzes fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychoanalysis.

In the book, Bettelheim discusses the emotional and symbolic importance of fairy tales for children, including traditional tales at one time considered too dark, such as those collected and published by the Brothers Grimm. Bettelheim suggested that traditional fairy tales, with the darkness of abandonment, death, witches, and injuries, allowed children to grapple with their fears in remote, symbolic terms. If they could read and interpret these fairy tales in their own way, he believed, they would get a greater sense of meaning and purpose. Bettelheim thought that by engaging with these socially evolved stories, children would go through emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own futures.

Structure and contents

The book is divided into two main sections. The first, "A Pocketful of Magic," outlines Bettelheim's thoughts on the value of fairy tales for children. The second part, "In Fairy Land," presents psychoanalytical readings of several popular fairy tales, specifically:

• "Hansel and Gretel"
• "Little Red Riding Hood"
• "Jack and the Beanstalk"
• "Snow White"
• "Goldilocks and the Three Bears"
• "The Sleeping Beauty"
• "Cinderella"
• The "animal groom" cycle of fairy tales, including "Beauty and the Beast", "The Frog King" and "Bluebeard".

Awards

In the U.S., Bettelheim and The Uses of Enchantment won the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism and the 1977 National Book Award in category Contemporary Thought.

Accusations of Plagiarism

In 1991, University of California anthropologist Alan Dundes accused Bettelheim of copying key passages from A Psychiatric Study of Myths and Fairy Tales: their origin, meaning, and usefulness (1974) by Julius Heuscher without giving appropriate credit. This accusation of plagiarism is not conclusive.

In popular culture

The Uses of Enchantment has been cited as an influence in many subsequent works that utilise fairy tales in adult terms, including the 2011 Catherine Hardwicke film Red Riding Hood and the 2014 fantasy horror film Red Kingdom Rising. It was claimed by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine as the inspiration for their 1986 musical Into the Woods.