Grimms’ Fairy Tale “The Queen Bee”
and the Longing for Wholeness
Presented by
Susanne Weiss, MA, Jungian Analyst
Sunday, September 11, 2022, 11 am – 1 pm PDT (UTC – 7)
Prepare for this lecture by reading The Queen Bee beforehand
Video available to program registrants and Club members upon email request
The Q&A was not recorded.
The famous Grimms’ fairy tale “The Queen Bee” illustrates the human longing for psychic wholeness. The beginning of the tale is dominated by rational cleverness and the supremacy of the ego, an attitude which is one-sided and no longer appropriate. This lecture will examine all the wonderful redeeming symbols in the tale which represent archetypal aspects of our psyche and will explore how relating to these can bring about healing and allow our inner opposites to unite.
Learning Objectives:
List the many symbols in the Grimms’ fairy tale “The Queen Bee” and explain how they teach us about aspects of the human psyche.
Explain how understanding the role of animal symbols in fairy tales can help humans heal.
Define the Jungian concept of the Self and identify how it manifests in this fairy tale.
Susanne Weiss was born and raised in Zürich, Switzerland and now lives in Winterthur. She holds a Master’s degree in French and German Literature and Linguistics from the University of Zürich. After obtaining a teaching diploma, she spent ten years teaching high school French. She then began to study analytical psychology, graduating from the Research and Training Centre for Depth Psychology according to C.G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz in Zurich, with a thesis on a psychological interpretation and comparison of three tales about courtly love by Marie de France, a 12th century French poet. She has been in private practice as a Jungian analyst since 2016.