Folktales in the Folder of Human Mind: An Analytical Overview

Abstract

Folktale – is one of the traditional sources of entertainment and is a true reflection of society. The study of Folktales remains incomplete without its psychological interpretations. Psychoanalysis is a toll by which we can highlight the significance of folktale interpretation for understanding the human mind and its associated problem. Every society has its own norms and values and folktales represent those social boundaries and phenomena. Ritamoni Das (2014), stated that the Study of folktale in the light of psychoanalytical theory proves to be useful in understanding human behavior and social problem. This study emphasizes the Folktale analysis based on some of the major psychological and sociological approaches like Freudian method, Jungian analysis of folktales, Karl Abraham’s pointing out of the similarities between the fantasies materials in folktales and dreams. The assumptions of this study are twofold, Firstly, because of social control sometimes people cannot fulfill their own personal needs and desire, and Secondly, the psychological analysis of the folktale’s materials is inevitably subjective because each individual is going to come up with his own interpretation of the stories. This study aims at understanding the impact of various characters of folktales on the human psyche and analyzing the unconscious desire and the use of ego defenses mechanism in coping up with societal norms and values.