Abstract
Researchers influenced by psychoanalysis have been studying folktales and dreams since the time of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. The aim of the paper is to present a possible relationship between folktales and dreams, especially from a psychoanalytic point of view.
We can find many similarities in folktales and dreams, especially in children's dreams. For example, animals, but also father, mother, or siblings are often found as important characters.
In addition, folktales and dreams deal with similar topics related to psychosexual development. Furthermore, in folktales, as in dreams, latent and manifest content can be found such as the "dream work" - for example condensation, displacement or also idiomatic expressions which is studied by the Israeli psychoanalyst Ravit Raufman in folktales and dreams.
But what causes these similarities? The Hungarian psychoanalyst Géza Róheim assumed that the folktale has its origins in individual dream, which was passed on by oral narration. Anthropologist Gannanath Obeyesekere brings a different perspective: folktales, myths, dreams, and other folklore, interact with each other.
In this way folklore can change its original form but at the same time it becomes stronger and more important.