87

The tale allows us to actualise, metaphorise and overcome a traumatic disruption of family experiences. Its cyclical structure, its specific narrativity combined with an overt mobilisation of the imaginary give it sufficient elaborative capacity, engaging the subject in a test of identity. This correlates with an intersubjective support offering an adequate symbolic opening. Analysis of the Russian folktale “The Firebird” highlights the various ways whereby the tale symbolises the transformations needed for individual maturative progression, beyond the family conflicts encountered. The author outlines the three stages of the story-group process during which the inter- and trans-generational levels are brought into play and family conflicts are resolved, as group psychic processualisation develops.