Freud’s essay on the “Uncanny” can be said to
have defined, for our century, what literary criticism
once called the Sublime. This apprehension of a
beyond or of a daemonic—a sense of transcendence—
(5) appears in literature or life, according to Freud, when
we feel that something uncanny is being represented, or
conjured up, or at least intimated. Freud locates the
source of the uncanny in our tendency to believe in the
“omnipotence of thought,” that is, in the power of our
(10) own or of others’ minds over the natural world. The
uncanny is, thus, a return to animistic conceptions of
the universe, and is produced by the psychic defense
mechanisms Freud called repression.

It would have seemed likely for Freud to find his
(15) literary instances of the uncanny, or at least some of
them, in fairy tales, since as much as any other fictions
they seem to be connected with repressed desires and
archaic forms of thought. But Freud specifically
excluded fairy tales from the realm of the uncanny.
(20) “Who would be so bold,” Freud asks, “as to call it an
uncanny moment, for instance, when Snow White
opens her eyes once more?” Why not? Because, he
goes on to say, in those stories everything is possible,
so nothing is incredible, and, therefore, no conflicts in
(25) the reader’s judgment are provoked. Thus Freud, alas,
found fairy tales to be unsuited to his own analysis.

However, the psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim,
with a kind of wise innocence, has subjected fairy tales
to very close, generally orthodox, and wholly reductive
(30) Freudian interpretations. Bettelheim’s book, although
written in apparent ignorance of the vast critical
traditions of interpreting literary romance, is
nevertheless a splendid achievement, brimming with
useful ideas and insights into how young children read
(35) and understand.

Bruno Bettelheim’s major therapeutic concern has
been with autistic children, so inevitably his
interpretive activity is directed against a child’s
tendency to withdraw defensively or abnormally.
(40) According to Bettelheim, a child’s desperate isolation,
loneliness, and inarticulate anxieties are addressed
directly by fairy tales. By telling the child such stores
themselves, parents strengthen the therapeutic effect of
fairy tales, for in the telling, parents impart to the child
(45) their approval of the stories.

But why should fairy tales, in themselves, be
therapeutic? Bettelheim’s answer depends on the
child’s being an interpreter: “The fairy tale is
therapeutic because children find their own solutions,
(50) through contemplating what the story seems to imply
about their inner conflicts at this moment in their
lives.” Bettelheim proceeds on the basis of two
complementary assumptions: that children will
interpret a story benignly, for their own good; and that
(55) Freudian interpretations will yield an accurate account
of children’s interpretations. The child, questing for
help, and the analyst, attempting to find helpful
patterns in the stories, thus read alike, though in
different vocabularies.

1. According to the author, Bettelheim believes that fairy tales help troubled children by

(A) creating fantasy worlds into which they can escape
(B) helping them find solutions to their own problems
(C) providing a means of communication with their parents
(D) showing them other problems worse than their own
(E) solving their problems for them


2. According to the passage, Bettelheim believes that parents’ telling fairy tales to troubled children strengthens the tales’ therapeutic effect because

(A) most troubled children do not read independently
(B) most children believe whatever their parents tell them
(C) the parents’ telling the stories imparts to the children the parents’ sanction of the tales
(D) the parents can help the children interpret the stories according to the parents’ belief
(E) the parents can reassure the children that the tales are imaginary


3. It can be inferred from the passage that Freud believed that in fairy tales, “nothing is incredible” (line 24) because, in his view,

(A) fairy tales can be read and understood even by young children
(B) everything in fairy tales is purely imaginary
(C) fairy tales are so fantastic that in them nothing seems out of the ordinary
(D) it is uncanny how the patterns of fairy tales fit our unconscious expectations and wishes
(E) the reader represses those elements of fairy tales which might conflict with his or her judgment


4. According to the passage, Bettelheim believes that when children interpret a story benignly, they

(A) find in fairy tales answers to their own needs
(B) do not associate fairy tales with the uncanny
(C) do not find underlying meanings in fairy tales
(D) are aware that fairy tales are fictions
(E) are reassured by parental approval


5. Which one of the following best describes the author’s attitude toward Bettelheim’s work?

(A) approving of Bettelheim’s rejection of orthodox and reductive Freudian interpretations of fairy tales
(B) appalled at Bettelheim’s ignorance of the critical traditions of interpreting literary romance
(C) unimpressed with Bettelheim’s research methods
(D) skeptical of Bettelheim’s claim that fairy tales are therapeutic
(E) appreciative of Bettelheim’s accomplishments and practical insights.