Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/112

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104 COLLECTIVE REVl EWS

circumstances in which the fairy-tale took its rise and also ao explanation of many of its characteristics: its naTve wish-fulfilment, its exaggerations of size, riches and so on. Particularly interesting is Rank's derivation of the fairy-tales of a later time from an original primitive tale which brought the solace of phantasy to the endurance of a first great famine. Disappointment and disillusion- ment came about from various causes such as the reappearance of the same difficulties in the clan as in primitive life. A feeling of shame and a fear of reprisals are both at work in the fairy-tale when it refuses to admit the existence of just that fragment of crude reality which appears and is justified in the myth. Undoubt- edly one of the motives for fairy-tale making is self-consolation but tlic main reason lies in the warning thereby given to the younger generation. While the myth is the story of tlic son, the fairy-tale is the story of the son of the second generation who has become a father and is possessed with the fear of reprisals. The son's revolt is depicted in the mytli, but in the fairy-tale the parents have the upper hand again and arc concerned to put a stop to the tlireatcned resistance of the younger generation. The belief in the myth and the (proverbial) disbelief in the fairy-tale arise from the fact that the one creates a substitute for rcaUty while the other sets out to deter those who seek to realise the primitive wish.

Wliile in Rank's work the analytic investigation of myth is carried to the limits of its special sphere and from tlicre attempts to form correspondences with related sciences, the adherents of Jung pursue the reverse cour.se. Jhere is douiitless nothing to be said if occasionally the points of view of tlic frog and the bird are interchanged, but it scarcely seems possible to adopt botli at one and the same time. Silberer (8, 9) and Lorenz (5) have aspired to do this, and in part, with interesting results. So long as they remain on psycho-analytic ground their contributions are notewortliy and their results display insight; their deductions as to the loftier activities of the soul may also possess much value (analysis is not called upon to judge of that): but their attempt to interpret the primitive impulse-tendencies of the myths "by analogy" as the original morality, and as a matter of course directed towards high ideals, is an unfortunate one. Thus it comes about tlvat Silberer in his analy.sis of the homunculus-idea (8) only devotes about half his space to analytical matter— certainly of high value— so that apart from the interesting questions he raises it is fresh material only