Archetypal analysis of “Cinderella”

South-Russian Humanitarian Institute, Rostov-on-Don, Russia

^* Corresponding author: lymirskaya@yandex.ru

Abstract

Psychologists often use the name of the protagonist of the fairy tale “Cinderella”, which is famous thanks to the brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, for a sacrificial girl prone to dissociation, illusions, and waiting for a prince. This is typical for psychoanalysis. However, such an idea of Cinderella’s character does not fully reflect the essence of the matter. Moreover, it is generally not true. From the perspective of C.G. Jung’s analytical psychology, Cinderella is not a victim or an infantile dreamer and is not a real girl at all. Any tale represents an archetypal process of individuation. This is a collective natural constant of the psyche that excludes individual problems. Cinderella cultivated in herself what the ancient Greeks called “paideia” – the integrity of the personality and inner strength, influence on others. The purpose of the article is to describe the process of Cinderella’s individualization from the position of C.G. Jung’s archetypal approach based on the amplification method. The most relevant sources of recent years on the archetypal analysis of fairy tales are the works by M.-L. von Franz, H. Dieckmann, and C.P. Estés. The novelty of the study consists in the description and analysis of the archetypal images of the collective unconscious, which underlie the process of Cinderella’s individuation and determine her life path. These archetypal images are Persona, Self, Shadow, Anima/Animus, and the symbolic levels of the individuation process can be represented by such alchemical terms as “separation”, “multiplication”, “calcination”, “initiation”, “transformation”, “conjunction”, “solidification”. The levels testify to the character’s inner transformation and, as a result, lead to a happy woman’s destiny. The result of understanding the deep essence of the tale is a psychologist’s analytical work with modern young women, which will lead to positive changes in thinking and behavior.