Eventyr og børns emotionelle udvikling: En undersøgelse af eventyrfortællingens intersubjektive og interaffektive felt

The paper investigates the developmental importance of children’s encounters with fairy-tales by exploring the emotionally laden experiences in children’s encounters with fairy-tales. The empirical basis of the article is an observational study of the telling of a fairy tale. The theoretical perspective is the concepts of intersubjectivity and interaffectivity, and the methodology is psychodynamic infant observation. The investigation shows that the telling of the fairy-tale produces an intersubjective field in which opportunities of different emotional experiences are offered to the children. Different children are attracted to different aspects of the fairy-tale. Some feel drawn to the dangerous and violent aspects of the story, and some are attracted to scenes that provide experiences of beauty and elegance or a sensuous experience of the body. I conclude that fairy-tales and other kinds of cultural experience are important parts of the caring for children’s developmental needs in day-care.