Tale Therapy and Therapeutic Storytelling

Tale therapy uses narrative — traditional tale, myth, metaphor, self-narrative — as symbolic material allowing conflicts, fears and experiences otherwise inaccessible to be put into words. Bettelheim argues that fairy tales offer the child a support to traverse the oedipal phases, the fear of abandonment and sibling rivalry; Campbell's structure of the hero's journey provides a framework of transformation. The approach links an ancient proto-therapeutic function (storytelling evenings, Aristotelian catharsis) to a contemporary clinical use, notably in post-traumatic reconstruction (self-narrative, resilience according to Cyrulnik) and self-writing.

This therapy is covered in detail (principles, indications, protocol, level of evidence) in Volume 6 of the Mémento des Psychothérapies. See the volume.