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Verena Kast is well known as a leader of seminars and participatory workshops exploring the symbolic relevance of traditional folktales to individuals' psychological development. This book originated as a series of lectures and seems to be written mainly for a non-professional audience familiar with some Jungian concepts, in a popular, rather colloquial style. Although her erudition is everywhere evident concerning the story-telling tradition, folktale motifs from various cultures and amplificatory material from classical and religious mythology, her book is not an academic book and the references and notes are sparse, which frustrated me. The book is none the less full of interest for practising psychotherapists who want to acquaint themselves with Kast's clinical techniques. The heart of the book is a discussion of clinical material focused on six folktales, which are told in full (‘Little red cap’; ‘The brave little tailor’; ‘Beloved Roland’; ‘The white shirt, the heavy sword and the golden ring’; ‘The illfated princess’; ‘The snow queen’). Her case studies are vivid and varied, carrying her argument clearly.
Kast wishes to enable people to ‘profit most from what is unique about folktales: namely, their ability to speak to us on the level of images and feelings’ (p. 8). She sees folktales as posing perennial human questions, together with some indications of how they might be answered, thus carrying the ‘archetypally encapsulated hope’ (Bloch 1986)