*Reframing Motherhood within a Jungian Approach to Snow White: A Research Case Study Using… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109443*

imaginal reflections, which may be broken down into smaller mythologems as fragments within archetypal systems including fairy tales and mythological stories [43]. For example, a common and pervasive myth/archetype in today's society is that of the hero. The hero's journey has been particularly researched by Joseph Campbell and popularized in his talks with Bill Moyers. The hero's Journey is present in many myths and stories around the world, across all cultures [44]. It is fundamentally about meeting and facing difficulties, developing through them, and coming to new understandings to bring back to everyday life. Used again and again in stories, books, and movies, the hero's journey represents our human journey in mythological and archetypal form [45–47]. Mitchell notes that the mythological and fairy tale literature contains more heroes than heroines, and that heroines (female heroes) are much easier to find in fairy tales than in myths [48].

The archetype of the mother often occurs in an imaginal form in fairy tales as one type of archetypal myth [49, 50]. In fact, the study and interpretation of archetypes within fairy tales was largely initiated by Carl Jung [51], and has been continued by subsequent writers and practitioners [40, 52, 53]. Broadly, fairy tales have been used as a framework for "deepening the conversation about our clinical interactions and the meaning-making process in therapy" [36] and function as a continually recreated narrative [54]. More specifically, from a Jungian perspective, the analysis of the fairy tale leads to "the isolation, identification, and study of archetypal patterns and to the process of individuation played out as a whole endowed with meaning" [40]. Within the therapeutic process, clients may demonstrate or refer to the fairy tales explicitly or implicitly and may express personal associations and variations to each element of the fairy tales.

## **1.3 Interpretation of archetypal material**

Interpretation of archetypal material assists the client in deepening the understanding of patterns within the breadth of human experience, and emergent archetypal patterns in working with clients have "a ring of universality, inherent order, or transcendence" [43]. Archetypal patterns may occur in fragmented form, and the basic core elements of mythologems (or themes) can form part of larger mythic narratives as the building blocks of the underpinning structures, as seen in fairy tales and other myths [37, 43], relating to emotionally charged ideas or images within a complex. The actual interpretation of archetypal client material is shaped by language in the form of the words used by clients to express themselves with both intentionality and action [55]. Similarly, Bettelheim sees fairytales as a more gentle way of approaching maturation and psychological growth compared to myths [41], and "cultural symbols" are seen as intermediate between personal and universal symbols [56].

Fairy tales typically begin with a deficiency, lack, or crisis and lead into the disequilibrium of leaving a calm known world into a dangerous and unknown world, reflecting conscious, preconscious, and unconscious material [57]. In reporting an image, the client may express their uncertainty about an image, where even just mentioning the words suggests that the idea/image is present and emerging into consciousness. Images and characters in imagery can carry latent and manifest meanings influencing not only the naming of fairy tale characters but also the characteristics of their actual behavior. This also links to the physical marker model theory [58, 59]. Ambivalence and contradictory feelings may be expressed and interpreted through mythical images [53].

The ubiquitous nature of fairy tales and the ways that fairy tales are adapted and re-told give further information about personal and societal viewpoints [60] linked to "the social mind" [57]. In fact, a proverb attributed to Italian/Greek culture states that "The fairy tale has no landlord", thereby encapsulating the pervasive nature of fairy tales in society [60–62].

Attempts have been made to apply processes to fairy tale analysis [63, 64]. Applying a Jungian approach to dream interpretation to applying a Jungian approach to dream interpretation to fairy tales itself in terms of the main elements of the drama including time and place, the characters, and the storyline. Conflicts may occur as the narrative develops, generally leading toward resolution [63]. Following this, motifs or mythologems are amplified by exploring sign-based meanings within cultural expressions (literature and arts) framed within intertextuality [46]. Once the motif/ mythologem is further understood, the next step situates this within its surrounding [63] in line with insights into the client's context provided by variations from the expressed fairy tale. Finally, the preceding steps are synthesized and translated into an understanding of the psychological processes involved, typically focusing on the person's growth and development as an integrative process [63, 64].
