Reminder - Zoom only for Becca Tarnas weekend: Becca Tarnas is not traveling at the moment, so her events on Friday, December 1st and Saturday, December 2nd, are ZOOM only. Stay home, stay dry, and enjoy these events from your favorite comfortable spot. For reminders on how to connect, from the main menu above choose Programs -> Zoom Events FAQ. April 19-20, 1991: ... Read more
Home > Story Type > Event Announcement > April 19-20, 1991: Allan B. Chinen

April 19-20, 1991: Allan B. Chinen

Lecture and Workshop: Handed down over centuries, fairy tales are treasuries of wisdom distilling the observations and reflections of countless generations. In most familiar stories, like “Cinderella” or “Snow White,” the protagonist is a child or adolescent. These tales emphasize the psychological tasks of youth and end when the hero and heroine marry and (supposedly!) live “happily ever after.” 

A unique group of fairy tales feature protagonists who are in the second-half of life. These “elder tales” reveal what really happens in the “ever after”-when the Prince becomes bald and the Princess dons bifocals. 

In this lecture and workshop a number of “elder tales” from around the world will be retold and discussed. The stories contain deep insights about the tasks of maturity, from self-reformation and self-transcendence, to helping the next generation and being open to magic. In charming and poignant dramas, the tales depcit the final quest in life-for wisdom and illumination. 

 

Allan B. Chinen, M.D. is a psychiatrist in private practice in San Francisco, and is on the Clinical Faculty of the University of California. He is the author of In the Ever After: Fairy Tales and the Second Half of Life, published by Chiron. 

In the Ever After: Fairy Tales and the Second Half of Life
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