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In the Ever After: Fairy Tales and the Second Half of Life
April 19, 1991 @ 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm PDT
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.
Related Workshop: In the Ever After: Fairy Tales and the Second Half of Life
Allan B. Chinen, M.D., is the author of four books and the psychological and spiritual tasks of aging: In the Ever After, Once Upon a Midlife, Beyond the Hero, and Waking the World. Although retired from private practice to focus on writing, he continues to teach as a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, on the voluntary faculty of the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. He Is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Born and raised in Hawaii, he obtained his undergraduate and medical degrees at Stanford University, and completed his psychiatry residency and fellowship at University of California, San Francisco.