Freud's views bodily and to apply them to an explanation of the folk story. The popular tale, whether as myth, legend, or fairy story, is treated as a clear instance of a waking dream. But it is a waking dream which displays exactly the same mechanism of construction as the sleeping dream of the ordinary man or woman. The similarity of structure, and even of details, which different instances display, is due directly to the fundamental unity of determination of all individual human reaction.
I propose to call all theories of this general type, whether Freudian or not, theories of the folk tale as "individual expression." They all lay the greatest emphasis upon the common nature of individual experience. They may, and frequently do, recognise the operation of influences arising from the interaction of persons in social groups. But they confine themselves to a study of how such influences play upon the life of the particular person. Thus they all tend either to overlook or to belittle the importance of an objective study of the character and growth of social institutions and customs, and of the reactions of groups as such. The only history with which they are definitely concerned is the strictly psychological history of the human individual.
We may, however, follow a different line of approach, and consider not an analysis of the determinants of individual mental reactions, but the social setting in which particular stories have grown up. We shall now look primarily to the character of preceding and contemporary social institutions and customs to explain the details of the folk tale. Instead of saying, "What attitude would an individual be likely to adopt towards such and such an environment!" we should ask, "What customs and institutions can be found in the social organisation precedent to, or contemporary with, such and such a version of a particular folk story, and reflected in the narration?"
The first line of approach is specifically psychological.
