Tykhovska O. Mythological images and magic rituals in Ukrainian folklore of Transcarpathia: ethno-psychological aspect.

In the thesis, mythological images and magic rituals of Ukrainian folklore of Transcarpathia were analyzed in a complex by ethno-psychology for the first time in Ukrainian Folklore Study. According to the ideas of scholars of mythological and psychological schools of Folklore Study, the images of pagan gods, demons, two-soul men, supernatural creatures, the personification of elements were studied and their connection with the psychology of Ukrainians was found out. Various magic rituals are considered as a metaphoric attempt of a person to feel herself/himself as a demiurge, to influence nature and her/his own life according to the law of contagious and homeopathic magic. In the thesis, great attention is paid to specific features of objectification of mythological images in folk stories, myths, tales, legends, spells, and calendar songs of Transcarpathia. Human fear of the evil that is hidden in a person’s soul is shown up with the help of various images of two-souled men, demons, and anthropomorphic creatures. A person tries to supersede it into the sphere of the unconscious. The ambivalence of some personages (warlock, gonykhmarnyk, vitryanyk, Fate, Death, images of deceases) displays the belief of Ukrainians in the possibility of subordinating by the consciousness of some destructive desires and impulses.