Page:The theory of psychoanalysis (IA theoryofpsychoan00jungiala).pdf/136

 The analysis of this dream presents peculiar difficulties and therefore required two sittings. It would lead me too far to sketch to you all the material this dream brought forth. I have to limit myself to what is most necessary. The associations which deal with the real meaning of the dream belong to the remarkable image which tells us that the stones of the house are on fire, while the wood remains untouched. It is sometimes worth while, especially with longer dreams, to take out the most striking parts and to analyze them first. This proceeding is not the typical one, but it is justified by the practical desire to shorten matters. The little patient makes the observation that this part of the dream is like a fairy-tale. Through examples it was made plain to her that fairy-tales always have a meaning. She objects: "But not all fairy-tales have one. For instance, the tale of the Sleeping Beauty. What could that mean?" The explanation was as follows: "The Sleeping Beauty had to wait for one hundred years in an enchanted sleep until she could be freed. Only he who was able to overcome all the difficulties through love, and had the courage to break through the thorny hedge, was able to deliver her. So one must often wait a long while to obtain what one longs for."

This explanation is as much in harmony with the capacity of childish understanding, as it is perfectly consonant with the history of the motive of this fairy-tale. The motive of the Sleeping Beauty shows clearly its relation to an ancient myth of Spring and fertility, and contains at the same time a problem which has a remarkably close affinity to the psychological situation of the precocious girl of eleven.

This motive of the Sleeping Beauty belongs to a whole cycle of legends in which a virgin, closely guarded by a dragon, is delivered by a hero. Without entering into the interpretation of this myth, I want to bring into prominence the astronomical or meteorological components which are very clearly demonstrated in the Edda. In the form of a virgin, the Earth is kept prisoner by the winter, covered in ice and snow. The young Spring-Sun, in the form of a hero, delivers her out of her frosty prison, where she has been longing for her deliverer.

The association given by the little girl was chosen by her simply to give an example of a fairy-tale without a meaning, and