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christa wusinich's picture

Bettleheim in class

I think our class discussion on Bettleheim was certainly lively. The classroom seemed to take on a very personal feel when childhoods came into play. I mean who was going to discredit fairytales ( particular fairy tales or all in general) when a classmate said that she found fairytales to be very comforting to her as a child? Who can say that she was wronged or misled by fairytales if not she? I felt that if an argument began to escalate about the merit of fairytales, that when personal notes were contributed to the class...what would happen, is that the argument was dispelled. There is no better evidence than a personal testament. No single truth could be agreed upon as to the value of fairytales. There was an interesting shift from the emotional and psychological interpretation of fairytales to political and ideological. This seemed to remove some of the personal tensions of the class and invited us to be creative in identifying hidden political propaganda, if there was or could be any that is.

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