Folklore + Freud??

I think the interpretation I find myself gravitating towards is the psychoanalytic interpretation. This may be because I am a psychology major, so anything dealing with psychological perspectives kind of draws me in. I guess I think that the way it is explained, how “a culture’s folklore presents a look at its collective psychological concerns,” really makes sense (Sims and Stephens, pp. 187). I think that is true, that the way you do things, through ritual and tradition, telling stories, all have a broader meaning that could deal with personalities, child-rearing, developmental stages, etc (Sims and Stephens, pp. 187). Obviously different places and people will have different traditions and ways that they do things, and this interpretations shows that their folklore reflects upon many of their internal characteristics. I also thought it was really interesting how the authors mentioned that psychoanalysts can study certain texts to find “metaphors for puberty, sexual maturity, seduction and death,” (Sims and Stephens, pp. 187). The examples that were explained really made sense to me and I think they apply to a lot of other parts of folklore as well. It seems as though this approach involves the most in-depth look at the symbolism in folklore, which might be why I like it so much. It is almost as if different parts of our development, whether physical, emotional or mental, can be explained symbolically and be accepted as such through the use of folklore. Similarly, I do think that a lot of what people do has a much deeper meaning than it may seem on the surface. Gary Allen Fine explained this well when he said, “folklore provides a socially acceptable outlet for meaning that cannot be displayed otherwise. If the meaning was overt, the text would have to be repressed,” (Sims and Stephens, pp. 191). I think this approach is the best way to look deeper into folklore and bring out a lot if information that would not be explained as well with the other approaches. This blog entry is my response to the Chapter 6 Reflection Question.