In this book, Victor MacGill uses the science of systems theory to explore the hidden meanings of fairy tales and myths. He links the scientific with anthropological, mythological, psychological, and healing approaches to explore these stories and how they can be applied to emotional healing.
Throughout history, shared understandings of ourselves and our world have enabled us to cooperate. This book uses MacGill's 'dynamics of life' model to explore these foundational societal roles – such as the king, the warrior, the magician, the lover, and the dragon – and explains how these shared mental patterns within a culture create archetypes that inhabit our inner worlds and guide our lives and can reveal deeper aspects of human behaviour. These archetypes are reflected in fairy stories and myths recited around the fireside for millennia. The book presents examples from around the world – including the Greek tale of Perseus, traditional fairy stories such as Hansel and Gretel and Rapunzel, and Pacific myths – to highlight the hidden depths of meaning within these simple stories, which are usually relegated to Children's bedtime. MacGill suggests that we can meet and interact with our inner kings and magicians and confront our own dragons through these dreams, meditations, journalling, and much more, allowing us to heal our emotional and societal wounds.
With its interdisciplinary exploration of this topic and discussion of Jungian psychology, this book offers a unique resource for postgraduate researchers and other scholars, as well as psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, and coaches of all backgrounds.