The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales

Author(s): Bruno Bettelheim

On Writing

Bruno Bettelheim was one of the great child psychologists of the twentieth century and perhaps none of his books has been more influential than this revelatory study of fairy tales and their universal importance in understanding childhood development. Analyzing a wide range of traditional stories, from the tales of Sindbad to The Three Little Pigs, Hansel and Gretel, and The Sleeping Beauty, Bettelheim shows how the fantastical, sometimes cruel, but always deeply significant narrative strands of the classic fairy tales can aid in our greatest human task, that of finding meaning for one s life."


Product Information

Bruno Bettelheim was born in Vienna in 1903. He received his doctorate at the University of Vienna and came to America in 1939, after a year in the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. He was a Distinguished Professor of Education and Professor of both psychology and psychiatry at the University of Chicago. He died in 1990.

General Fields

  • : 9780307739636
  • : Random House USA Inc
  • : Random House Inc
  • : 0.268
  • : 206mm X 133mm X 20mm
  • : United States
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Bruno Bettelheim
  • : Paperback / softback
  • : 398.209
  • : 328