From Game to War and Other Psychoanalytic Essays on Folklore by Alan Dundes

In that vein, this book is far less about folklore than it is about sex. They seem to see sex absolutely everywhere, yet for some odd reason they believe it's just an objective quality to the things they're observing rather than a personal obsession. I've always been mystified by the lack of self-awareness on the part of those in the psychological field. He edited Mother Wit from the Laughing Barrel: Readings in the Interpretation of Afro-American Folklore (1991), which was published by University Press of Mississippi. Among many others, his books include Interpreting Folklore (1980) and From Game to War and Other Psychoanalytic Essays on Folklore (1997). Bloody Mary in the Mirror is an expedition into psychoanalytic folklore techniques and constitutes a giant step towards realizing the potential Freud's work promises for folklore studies.Īlan Dundes is professor of anthropology and folklore at the University of California, Berkeley. The plausible analysis of this well-known-if somewhat puzzling-American rite is one of many surprising and enlightening finds in this book.Īll of the essays in this remarkable volume create new takes on old traditions. One of two essays Dundes co-authored with his daughter Lauren Dundes, professor of sociology at Western Maryland College, successfully probes the content of Disney's The Little Mermaid, yielding new insights into this popular reworking of a Hans Christian Andersen favorite.Īmong folk rituals investigated is the girl's game of 'Bloody Mary.' Elementary or middle school-age girls huddle in a darkened bathroom awaiting the appearance in the mirror of a frightening apparition. In the seven fascinating essays of Bloody Mary in the Mirror, psychoanalytic theory illuminates such folklore genres as legend (in the vampire tale), folktale (in the ancient Egyptian tale of two brothers), custom (in fraternity hazing and ritual fasting), and games (in the modern Greek game of 'Long Donkey'). One notable exception is folklorist Alan Dundes. Most folklorists have been slow to consider psychoanalysis as a method of interpreting folklore. However, psychoanalysts, handicapped by their limited knowledge of folklore techniques, have tended to confine their efforts to the Bible, to classical mythology, and to the Grimm fairy tales.

Bloody Mary in the Mirror mixes Sigmund Freud with vampires and The Little Mermaid to see what new light psychoanalysis can bring to folklore techniques and forms.Įver since Freud published his analysis of Jewish jokes in 1905 and his disciple Otto Rank followed with his groundbreaking The Myth of the Birth of the Hero in 1909, the psychoanalytic study of folklore has been an acknowledged part of applied psychoanalysis.

From Game to War and Other Psychoanalytic Essays on Folklore by Alan Dundes