SLFK 211 October 3, 2002
Last lecture &endash; background to Bettelheim in the form of the animal tales, the part not much discussed by Haney (who says they are very primitive)
And, indeed, if you say that these are the tales of earliest childhood, these are quite primitive indeed, animalistic
Remember: Two widely accepted ways to look at tales
As reflecting earlier stages of society
As connected to early stages of human development
Haney uses the early stages of society interpretation
Bettelheim offers the early stages of human development interpretation
Some background to Bettelheim of a different sort
He is a psychotherapist who treats children
He is also a Freudian analyst
You all know who Freud is so just a few words
Importance of Freud to modern intellectual life
On a par with Darwin and Marx
Freud influences all sorts of things, from medicine, which is his original field
To literary criticism and folklore scholarship
To the criminal justice system &endash; the insanity plea
He treats female patients, hysterical women
Whose problem is seen to be either lack of will power or some sort of problem in their uterus and they get hysterectomies
Freud posits that these women are ill, just like someone with appendicitis
But that the problem is in their heads, not in their uterus
Furthermore, these women cannot control their behavior and it is not their fault, anymore than contracting appendicitis is someone's fault
Problem is in the unconscious and this is something that cannot be controlled
The whole idea of mental illness as a special type of MEDICAL, NOT MORAL problem is from Freud
Prior to Freud &endash; either it is a moral problem and you have to force someone to behave better; or it is a physical problem and requires a physical solution like a hysterectomy
Source of mental illness &endash; conflict of the ego and the id
These are all Freudian terms, concepts he comes up with to explain what is going on
Id is libido, it is the urge or drive for food, sex, violence
These are controlled by the ego, and so it must be for people to function in society
Improper control, excessive frustration of id impulses > illness
In a child, the id is strong and the ego is weak
As a child grows, he learns to control the id
There is a certain sequence to this development of control, tied to orifices
So child learns control of oral impulses first,
Then anal
Then sexual
Source of illness is conflict between the impulses of the id and the control of the ego
If the impulses are excessively frustrated
If there is no way for the impulses to be expressed (or sublimated)
If proper and satisfactory methods of control have not been developed
Supposition is that, if you are not a normal, at least reasonably well-behaved adult with reasonable abilities to control impulses and still be reasonably happy, then something went wrong IN THE PROCESS OF DEVELOPMENT
You didn't learn to control your oral impulses correctly, you might have a weight problem; either overweight or something like anorexia or bulimia
You might have oral fixations which manifest themselves in smoking and a desire to constantly stick things into your mouth
If something went wrong with potty training, you might be excessively cleanly, washing your hands all of the time, having dirt phobias
You might be anal-compulsive, wanting to gather things together and put them in order so that they are nice and neat and cleanly (librarians and folklorists)
Whatever the problem may be, it is buried in the unconscious, because it is too painful to deal with, and manifests itself in encoded form &endash; like strange and undesirable behavior
That is where therapy comes in
You need a trained therapist to figure out what the problem is
Analyst looks at dreams
Does interviews with the patient
May do things like Rorshak tests
To uncover the problem
Having uncovered the problem = made the diagnosis
Therapist makes the unconscious problem conscious
Patient experiences a kind of epiphany, catharsis; technical term is abreaction
And this allows him or her to deal with the problem and come to a resolution
What happens to Freudian therapy?
Talking cure is not as popular as it used to be
Line of development is on view of mental illness as a medical problem
But now not surgical solution, though some of that, too (older version was electric shock therapy, lobotomy, drilling hole in the skull to reduce pressure)
Rather medical solution, chemical type &endash; drugs to solve the problems of mental illness
Number of pharmaceuticals is enormous and VERY lucrative
Even poochy Prozac
Not to mention Ritalin, etc.
So what of Freudian psychotherapy?
Psychoanalysis not as popular as it once was, but idea of child development in certain clear stages takes off and becomes a big dear
Freud's daughter Anna focuses on children and on normal, rather than abnormal development
Erik Erikson, Piaget
All sorts of current work
Some of the ideas behind this are from Darwin
Development of human embryos similar to the development of embryos of other, "lower" life forms
If there is a clear sequence of development in utero, must be one after birth
If there is a clear sequence of development that is physiological, must be one that is neurological and, by extension, psychological
Cat's eye experiment
Hearing in infants
Phenylalanine
Experiments on children
Room model
Map of maze
Spacial relations by crawling?
Ball behind screen experiment
Ball in the box experiment
Neurological development in utero?
Language
Music
Anyway, development in utero follows a certain sequence and development after birth does also
There is a sequence of physical development
Of neurological development &endash; hearing, foreign language
Mental &endash; ability to empathize, think in the way another would
Freudian idea is that early development follows orifice control
Oral, anal
Then sexual, should come at about age 5, 6 when you have Oedipal conflict
Sexual attraction to the opposite sex parent
Bettelheim is a child psychotherapist
Works extensively with children
He says that tales help children go through this process of development
Last 2 lectures I did oral and anal, in a way
In any case, the EARLIEST stages of development
Bettelheim's book takes it from there
After a section of testimonials, various famous people saying how much they liked tales and how tales helped them, discussion of how tales work
Adults do not think the ways kids think and often cannot talk to kids in kid terms, much as they would like
Tales do &endash; Fisherman and Genie example &endash; they did in section
Tales deal with the problems in a kid's head, rather than with what parents would like to be there, including nasty thoughts to parents
Tales have the black/white thinking of child thought &endash; no ambiguities
(how hard it is to teach ambiguity and subtlety even at college level)
And consequent splitting &endash; like the mother/stepmother dichotomy
Child's mother and Martian fantasy
Tale adaptation to child thought comes from ORAL telling
Interaction and reaction to child as audience
Bettelheim on no pictures
Tales tell kid that what he is dealing with is internal and not external reality
Like kids not seeing shapes as animals in Grottos
Tales tell you this is NOT REAL, BUT TRUE
Once upon at time
Three times nine kingdoms away
Tale closings
Internal markers &endash; ne skoro delo delaetsia, a skoro skazka skazhetsia
External and internal reality distinctions are a real issue these days
What you are allowed to think and what you are allowed to do
Some people are afraid that, if you think it, you will necessarily do it
Back to tales and good for children
Tales tell you that their message is universal, applies to all
Names of characters are generic = everyman
Ivan
Jack/John
Hans
These are all the same name
Mary, Masha, Marya for girls
If not generic, then descriptive
Goldilocks
Little Red Ridinghood
Prince Charming
Snow White and Rose Red
Beauty (and the Beast)
Frog Prince
Zabava
Vasilissa Prekrasnaia, Premudraia
Tales are good for children because they have MULTIPLICITY of function
Which is true of all folklore and all great lit.
Same story can be understood in MANY different ways, mean many different things to different people
Brother and Sister example (Sestritsa Aliunushka, Bratik Ivanushka)
Rapunzel and resources in own body
Arjun and Sleeping Beauty