One work which doesn’t focus as much on the psychological/symbolic aspects of fairy tales, but does make an attempt to comment on their place in human society and their literary virtues is J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘On Fairy Stories’. The essay can be found any number of collections of Tolkien’s shorter works (it often gets included in compilations of his fiction as well, since it is traditionally paired with the short story ‘Leaf by Niggle’). One interesting note in comparing it to Bettelheim’s account, which apparently focuses on fairy tales as something for children, one of Tolkien’s primary arguments is that fairy tales are not inherently juvenile, and their current status as such is purely a historical accident, unrelated to any supposed literary or psychological appeal to children.