The Trickster

(1) Trickster. Psychologically, descriptive of unconscious shadow tendencies of an ambivalent, mercurial nature.

[The trickster] is a forerunner of the saviour . . . . He is both subhuman and superhuman, a bestial and divine being, whose chief and most alarming characteristic is his unconsciousness.["On the Psychology of the Trickster-Figure," CW 9i, par. 472],

The so-called civilized man has forgotten the trickster. He remembers him only figuratively and metaphorically, when, irritated by his own ineptitude, he speaks of fate playing tricks on him or of things being bewitched. He never suspects that his own hidden and apparently harmless shadow has qualities whose dangerousness exceeds his wildest dreams.[ Ibid., par. 478.]

 

From JUNG LEXICONA Primer of Terms & Concepts by DARYL SHARP

 

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