[The fairy tale of the "Marienkind"--adolescence in a fairy tale]

The fairy-tale of "St. Mary's Child" has often been neglected by contemporary readers because it is said to be extremely moralistic. I try to demonstrate that it must not necessarily be seen in this way, and that its dramatic quality stems from the conflict of the super-ego and the ego. This concerns primarily the phenomenon of the lie to which the protagonist takes refuge in order to prevent the authority from intruding. I quote H. KOHUT's "one's empathy for one-self" which means that it can be an important experience (either in childhood or in therapy) to perceive that neither parents nor therapists are omniscient so that their empathy must be counter-balanced by "one's empathy for one-self". My interpretation of the fairy-tale follows this direction.