Psychoanalytic perspectives on Tove Jansson’s Moomin stories

ABSTRACT

Tove Jansson (1914–2001), was a Swedish speaking Finn, a noted painter and writer, best known as the creator and author of the Moomin books which she illustrated herself. The first book in the series was published in 1945 in Finland. Since then, they have delighted many children and adult readers and gained the status of classics. Although the Moomins are especially well-known in the Nordic countries, they are also popular abroad and have been translated into many different languages. Moominvalley is both a familiar and magical place where the everyday and the incredible intertwine seamlessly to transport readers beyond the everyday to the realm of fairy tales and inner worlds. Deep structures of meaning can be found underlying the stories representing a delicate interplay between separateness and union, the tension between being seen and hidden, and integration of the self. This paper aims to examine how the stories evoke these inner processes and are depicted in the behaviours, moods and feelings of Moomin characters in the light of psychoanalytic theory, with particular reference to the work of Melanie Klein, Wilfred Bion and Donald Winnicott.

KEYWORDS:

• Loss
• separation
• holding
• psychoanalysis
• development of imagination
• internal world

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on the contributor

Agne Raneberg is a recent graduate of the Tavistock/University of Essex MA in Psychoanalytic Studies. She previously completed her MSc in Clinical Psychology at Vilnius University, Lithuania and is now at University of Warwick researching motherhood.

Notes

1 In addition to Moomin novels, Tove Jansson wrote three Moomin picture books and Moomin comic strips.

2 Strange and silent creatures with somewhat ghost-like appearance who spend their lives on endless travels. They cannot hear or see but become charged with electricity during thunderstorms.