Freudian Psychology in the Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales

Introduction: The Psychological Power of Grimm's Fairy Tales

Some of the most influential stories in Western and American culture today were written many centuries ago and compiled for slightly more modern audiences by a pair of German brothers. The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm have left an enormously large impact on human development over the past several centuries. These stories were not originally written as fun and happy-go-lucky tales for the amusement of children, as some interpretations over the past century have presented them. Rather, these dark and foreboding tales were written as warnings about the dangers and sinful lures of life, used to teach moral lessons and frighten people into behaving in an acceptable way.

The question has been raised: what is so deeply terrifying about these stories, and what is so deeply captivating about the characters and events within them? Perhaps the answer lies in their deep connection to the very psyche of humanity. The psychological impact of these stories is so great because of the strong parallels to human psychology and the workings of the mind that are woven throughout them. The "father of modern psychology," Sigmund Freud, may have practiced many centuries after the Brothers Grimm wrote their tales, but those tales are nonetheless a tool with which one can examine Freudian psychology with clarity. "Modern psychologists and cultural anthropologists read in quite a bit of emotional angst, fear of abandonment, parental abuse, and sexual development in the stories that are often read at bedtime in the West. The child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim in his book The Uses of Enchantment read familiar Grimm fairy tales as Freudian myths." (Motor) One of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales that exemplifies this is "The Robber and His Sons," a story in Grimm's third volume adapted from a fifteenth-century manuscript.

Summary of 'The Robber and His Sons'

The story of "The Robber and His Sons" would strike most modern readers as quite disturbing and gruesome, though not without emotionally moving elements. There is a career thief who wishes to become an honest, law-abiding person. However, his children are not drawn to the moral path; following in their father's less righteous footsteps, they attempt to steal a horse belonging to the Queen. Their father comes to the rescue, but not without a price: he must tell three painful stories to the Queen in exchange for their freedom.

In the first story, the ex-robber encounters a giant who intends to eat him. He manages to put out the giant's eye and escapes from the cave by dressing himself in the skin of a sheep.¹ However, in his greed he places on his finger a ring that had belonged to the giant, and this ring compels the man to cry out, "Here I am! Here I am!" In order to avoid being discovered, he bites off his own finger to make the magic stop. Then, lost in the wilderness, the ex-robber tells of frightening forest entities, including a woman who is about to commit infanticide and feed her own child to a group of men. The man makes her cook a hanged robber for dinner instead, and — having hung himself in a tree in the robber's place — has a chunk of his own flesh removed from his side to be eaten. In the last story, giants are frightened away by thunder. The Queen is pleased by the stories and releases the man's children. (Grimm)