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It is often asked nowadays whether the old-fashioned fairy-tale still has any value or interest for our children. Some people say that it is too magical, too cruel, and that it is not appropriate for our modern technical world. On the other hand many people, in Europe more than in America, passionately defend fairy-tales from their enemies, often because of their own sentimental memories, romantic ideas and devotion to the past.
Meanwhile, quite apart from the controversy, fairy-tales are told by mothers all over the world to their children, and children also hear and read them on other occasions. Most children are fascinated by this magic world of witches, flying carpets, giants, and fairies. Fairy-tales comply in a very special way with the young child's way of experiencing the world. So the fairy-tale still has a certain independence in this struggle between grown-ups for and against its survival.
I have no idea as to what degree fairy-tales are still alive in American nurseries. I have often heard from American friends that stories about Mickey Mouse, Superman or other modern narratives have displaced the old fairy-tale. And I wonder at the great success of such films as Walt Disney's ‘Snow-White’, which comes from the U.S.A. Scientific experiments similar to my own (Dieckmann, 1963 and 1966) have been made in U.S.A. by Karpman on the subject of fairy-tales and script drama analysis (Karpman, 1968). Perhaps one could say that the fairy-tale is surviving but has been driven underground.
Incidentally, one finds that this problem is a very old one. More than 70 years ago the German poet Wilhelm Hauff, who wrote many well-known fairy-tales himself, introduced his book about fairy-tales with the story ‘Märchen als Almanach’. In those days of the late 19th century the Almanach played nearly the same role as do the illustrated papers or the popular scientific magazines of today.
In this story Hauff describes how the poor little fairy-tale is displaced from the rationalisti