Snow White: Life Almost Lost

How can I get back the life I believed was lost?” Theodor Seifert sees this as the central question in the fairy tale Snow White.

For the psychotherapist it is a daily experience to hear patients say they “feel dead,” that “life is passing [them] by,” that they are “spectators but not participants.” Seifert views the fairy tale as a wellspring of wisdom where one can find trustworthy solutions to problems. The central problem he treats in his interpretation of “Snow White” is relationship: “Can my frozen feelings come to life again?” “Can I make a new beginning, or must I live out a living death?”

Table of Contents

"SNOW WHITE"
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I In the Middle of Winter CHAPTER II Snowflakes in Winter: Small, Scarcely Perceptible Feelings and Hopes
CHAPTER III Only a Queen ... : Constrictions and Biases
CHAPTER IV A Window Framed in Black: The View from Mourning
CHAPTER V The Queen Was Sewing: The Hint of Something New
CHAPTER VI The Prick of the Needle: The Call of Life
CHAPTER VII Three Drops of Blood in the Snow: The Great Conflict
CHAPTER VIII The Child: Transformation and New Beginning
CHAPTER IX The Death of the Queen: Responsibility and Concern
CHAPTER X The New Spouse: Reestablishing an Old Condition
CHAPTER XI "Mirror, Mirror, Here I Stand": Self-Condemnation for Better or Worse
CHAPTER XII "A Thousand Times More Beautiful": Isolation or Community
CHAPTER XIII In the Wild Forest: The Secret Life of the Soul
CHAPTER XIV With the Dwarfs: Hidden Growth
CHAPTER XV Deception and Poison: The Battle for Life, Love, and Death
CHAPTER XVI The Glass Coffin: Between Life and Death
CHAPTER XVII A King's Son Comes into the Forest: Encounter, Sacrifice, Treasure
CHAPTER XVIII You Are with Me: Rooted in One's Own Earth
CHAPTER XIX "She Got so Terrified, so Terrified": The Seed of Evil
Chapter XX The Red-Hot Shoes: Collective and Cold Heat