The Uses of Enchantment (Penguin Psychology)

Later in the text he mentions a study where there was a group of children who were familiar with violent fairy tales, and a group of children who were only familiar with the watered down versions. Both groups were showed violent films. Bettelheim claimed that the group exposed to the fairy tales reacted less aggressively to the films. I found this interesting but poorly cited which makes me wonder about the ligitamacy of this assumption. Reading other reviews and finding out more about Bettelheim's history helped me put the reading into perspective.

I will probably only recomend this book to people with an interest in literary analysis or fantasy writing to serve as an inpiration, but I would add a disclaimer about his questionable credibility.


What about the Story Teller?   October 31, 2003
 7 out of 19 found this review helpful

Certainly the use of enchantment and magic (I am an amatuer magician, a member of the order of Merlin) has a deep meaning for all of us. Stories have been used to teach humanity from childhood since prehistory. The popularity of Harry Potter, Hobbits, Jesus, Oz, Snow White, Red Riding Hood (You don't talk to strangers when you are small) Moses, Sherlock Holmes and a multitude of heroes and heroines, in all branches of literature is endurable. (Some mythologists used to say science fiction is the mythology of today. We are still only scratching the surface.) The problem with this book is the story teller, himself. "The Creation of Dr. B" by Richard Pollack, and the reviews of Pollack's exposure of Bruno Bettelheim, here on Amazon.com, should be accompanying required reading for those who praise this "work?" My personal experiences, and the out- right bizarre interpretations of the mundane with Freudians have been baffling and "extremely humorous". "A cigar is always a cigar," only for those in control of a bewildered and vulnerable patient. Quackery, psycho-babble, and "pop" psychology pass for good psychiatry and psychotherapy too easily and too often, to a trusting public. (Some in control of the media will do anything to make a buck; good and bad.) To be a "real medical doctor" one should start by going to medical school. Not write questionable books and make up your past. Those who use deception for the art of entertainment and the production of wonder, learn a lot about suspicion and deception. It is part of the (witch?) craft.
Charlie Turek, Magician


Fascinating, Clumsy   September 26, 2003
 6 out of 7 found this review helpful

Bettelheim by most accounts was a monster; perhaps that's what enabled him to unearth the monstrousness in our fairy tales. This often brilliant book, hampered by repetitive and awakward prose, shows how the stories we grow up with help us to symbolize and work through our inner conflicts. I know of no other book like this and I found it evoked childhood feelings of mine -- as well as present problems derived from them -- with great acuity.

What the book is lacking in is wit, a sense of proportion, a historical sensibility, and overall design. Shockingly the book completely unravels when Bettelheim analyzes the most popular fairy tale of all time, Cinderella. As this tale doesn't fit in as well as others with psychoanalytic theory, one feels him jamming his theories inappropriately into it, not unlike the stepsisters forcing their feet into the glass slipper by hacking off their toes and heels. Bettelheim doesn't self-destruct that badly, but the reader definitely gets a glimpse at the end into the obstinacy and grandiosity of a brilliant and troubled man.


"A charming book about enchantment..."   September 17, 2003
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

"...a profound book about fairy tales." --John Updike

What a profound book it is! Bettelheim has convinced me not only why children and adults love these stories-- "Little Red Riding Hood," "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," "Cinderella," "Beauty and the Beast," ARABIAN NIGHTS, "Snow White," "Hansel and Gretel," "Jack and the Beanstalk" and many more-- he has also convinced me that the elements that comprise these stories are essential for children to grow up healthy and emotionally sound. He makes a great case for not bowdlerizing the stories, nor imposing strict logic upon them. They speak, in his Freudian terminology, directly to the sub-conscious.

While he occasionally goes overboard with Freudian psychoanalysis (Bettelheim is, after all, a Freudian psychoanalyst), he manages several times on each page of the book to shed new light on these tales and how they work. For anyone who is interested in the power of storytelling, here is a great book.

I read it based on the recommendation of playwright David Mamet, who prefers it to Joseph Campbell's HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES. In any case, the implications of Bettelheim's book expand far beyond only fairy tales. Fairy tales are simply the first stories that we hear, refined for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years in the oral tradition. If we look at them closely enough, we can see our greater humanity. Highly recommended for anyone, writers or parents or both, who tell stories and re-tell them.


Interesting but gets too Freudian   July 9, 2003
 4 out of 6 found this review helpful

Bettelheim knows a lot and he gives interesting close readings of many tales but it gets tedious to hear about how everything turns on OEDIPAL situations and that all girls love their fathers and have to learn how to separate from them. A good place to start but there are better books out there on fairy tales.