Fairy tales are a direct reflection of the mental processes of the collective unconscious, making them superior to any other source of scientific research. In fairy tales, archetypes are presented in their simplest, purest, and most concise form, thereby providing archetypal images with a key to understanding the processes occurring in the collective psyche.

In myths, legends, and other more detailed mythological material, we come to understand the basic structural formations (patterns) of the human psyche, comprehending them through cultural layers. Fairy tales contain significantly fewer of these specific cultural layers, and therefore they more clearly reflect the basic patterns of the psyche.