Although folklore has been collected for centuries, its possible unconscious content and significance have been explored only since the advent of psychoanalytic theory. Freud and some of his early disciples recognized the potential of such folkloristic genres as myth, folktale, and legend to illuminate the intricate workings of the human psyche.

In this volume Alan Dundes, a renowned folklorist who has successfully devoted the better part of his career to applying psychoanalytic theory to the materials of folklore, offers five of his most recent and mature essays on this topic.