I think it's hard to find a child who doesn't like fairy tales. After all, a fairy tale is one of the ways to understand the surrounding reality. She always arouses interest. And of course, different fairy tales excite different feelings. Some are re-read many times, some frighten, others leave you indifferent. But every child definitely has a favorite fairy tale. And today I would like to show how analysis of a favorite fairy tale can become a method for diagnosing the deepest experiences of an individual. First, I invite the client to remember and name his favorite fairy tale from childhood. Let it be “Thumbelina” today. Next, I inform you that during the analysis we will adhere to the archetypal scheme of a fairy tale (archetypes are collective universal patterns (models), or motives that arise from the collective unconscious and are the main content of religions, mythologies, legends and fairy tales). 1. An indication of the time (a long time ago) and place (in the distant kingdom). 2. The origin of the hero, life in his father’s house (heredity, status, basic attitude to the World).3. Leaving the parental home (separation from parents).4. Choosing a path (self-determination, beginning of initiation, growing up).5. Temptations (testing for a “good heart”, responsibility for choosing a path, overcoming temptations and doubts, accepting oneself and one’s path).6. Reward (finding helpers).7. Test (struggle with the antagonist, overcoming, death and rebirth, individuation, search for the Self).8. Reward (metamorphosis, transformation, spiritual growth).9. Returning home, difficulties along the way (checking the truth of the transformation). 10. Arrival at the father's house (acceptance of one's early childhood experiences, reconnection with one's roots, the final transformation of the hero, finding the Self).11. Reward (wedding - reunification of the masculine and feminine principles, restoration of integrity, identification with the Self; coronation - completion of individuation, fulfillment of one's destiny. So, the time and place of events. Here the client can get by with general phrases: once upon a time, a long time ago, in one state. Some point to a specific time frame, name a specific locality. And this is already material for analysis - what experiences of the client are associated with this particular time and this locality? The second point of analysis is the origin of the hero. In this case, the appearance of Thumbelina looks like an event from. out of the ordinary. Her mother could not have children and turned to a witch, that is, the birth of a child became a supernatural event. And thus the child comes into life with a parental message - contrary to this! At this stage, important realizations are likely. You can ask a direct question: does this resonate with your experience? And then the client says: “So that’s why “all the rivers dry up in front of me,” and everything in life is given to me with incredible difficulty?..” What’s interesting, in my opinion, is that the father is not mentioned at all. We know nothing about whether the woman had a husband, and if she did, how he felt about what was happening. From the outside it looks like the decision was made by the woman alone. And here the seed is laid for the devaluation of a man, which cannot but affect the fate of both the boy and the girl. And then a girl appears. Like her story, she is unusual even in appearance - very small. And nowhere does it say that she will ever grow up. And she does not live according to general laws. And everything that happens to her next looks very strange... The third point of analysis is leaving the parental home. What do we see in the fairy tale? This happens to our heroine by accident. She is simply kidnapped. And the “mother of the groom” does this. What is clearly seen here is that natural separation from the mother did not occur (the daughter leaves home involuntarily and without parental blessing). And naturally, a substitute parental figure appears - in this case, a potential “mother-in-law”. It is she who decides what will be best for her son and daughter-in-law (oh, how often.