Chapter twenty-nine compares and contrasts myths and fairy tales. Fairy tales help humans to understand their inner problems and how to solve these problems in a correct manner. Fairy tales are often used to teach children the difference between right and wrong and how to make correct decisions. Hence, most every fairy tale has a moral of the story. Fairy tales have both overt and covert meanings. This idea came from Bruno Bettelheim. Bettleheim believed fairy tales "came to speak simultaneously to all levels of the human personality, communicating in a manner which reaches the uneducated mind of the child as well as that of the sophisticated adult". This simply means that even though most fairy tales are targeted towards children, the messages may apply to adults as well. Fairy tales carry important messages to the conscious, the preconscious, and he unconscious mind.
Fairy tales come from ancient times and continue to play a very important role in our lives. Over time, the tales are modified by their tellers to help children deal with different psychological pressures of growing up. Fairy tales often include a hero or heroine and a villain. Fairy tales are similar to myths, but are not the same thing. A myth "shows idealized characters who are dominated by the demands of their superegos" and a fairy tale "shows an ego integration that makes possible the satisfaction of unrecognized, unconscious id desires felt by the child".
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