Maturation of females - The Brothers Grimm: ''The six swans''

Journal/Book: Anal Psychol. 1998; 29: Allschwilerstrasse 10, CH-4009 Basel, Switzerland. Karger. 99-116.

Abstract: Grimms' 'The Six Swans' may be read as a story of female initiation. Thus it focuses on the heroine's encounter with the antinomy of the mother archetype, on her task of understanding, by way of introspection, what rules her own psychic life. However, after establishing the inner relationship with the Self, she must also learn to relate to the outer world: individuation does not shut one out of the world, but gathers the world to oneself. This is, of course, a lesson essential to any one of the transitions of the maturing psyche as it learns to live the dynamics of polar opposition and complementarity and to undergo spiritual death and rebirth in order for woman or man to become whole.

Note: Article Arlart U, Bergstr 8, D-89233 Neu Ulm, GERMANY

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