trickster

person

collective noun

imposter syndrome

is a caricature of man with a strong libido.

With Boas, however, the trickster was taken out of its religious context. By viewing the trickster as a joker and caricature of man with a strong libido, Boas set the frame for later anthropological and folkloristic interpretations in North America (Hultkrantz 1997:8-9).'

is a degenerated form of the highest divinity.

Daniel G. Brinton's 1885 article 'the Hero-God of the Algonkins as a Cheat and Liar' (Gill & Sullivan 1992:308). Brinton, like Henry Rowe Schoolcraft before him, saw in the trickster a mainly religious figure a degenerated form of the highest divinity. '

is a figure representative of an archaic level of consciousness, an 'animal' or primitive self given to more intense expressions of libido, gluttony, and physical abuse.

the trickster 'represents an archaic level of consciousness, an 'animal' or primitive self given to more intense expressions of libido, gluttony, and physical abuse' (Russo 2008, 243)THE TRICKSTER IS AN ARCHETYPAL PSYCHIC STRUCTURE OF EXTREME ANTIQUITY, AN MANIFESTATION OF 'AN ABSOLUTELY UNDIFFERENTIATED HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS, CORRESPONDING TO A PSYCHE THAT HAS HARDLY LEFT THE ANIMAL LEVEL''In an appendix to The Trickster, Jung interpreted the phenomenon as 'a 'psychologem', an archetypal psychic structure of extreme antiquity.' Thus, it was a manifestation of 'an absolutely undifferentiated human consciousness, corresponding to a psyche that has hardly left the animal level' (ibid:200). For Karl Kerenyi the function of the Trickster was 'to add disorder to order and so make a whole, to render possible, within the fixed bounds of what is permitted, an experiment of what is not permitted' (ibid:185).

is a figure which addresses the dilemma of conflicting desires between sexual satisfaction and the development of civilization.

Much later, a Freudian explanation has been developed by Michael Carroll in 'Levi-Strauss, Freud, and the Trickster: A New Perspective upon an Old Problem' (1981). According to Freud, human beings desire both sexual satisfaction and the development of civilization. This is exactly, says Carroll, the dilemma of conflicting desires that these myths address.'

is a mirror of the mind wherein is depicted man's struggle with himself and with a world into which he has been thrust without his volition or consent.

Is this a speculum mentis wherein is depicted man's struggle with himself and with a world into which he had been thrust without his volition and consent' Is this the answer, or the adumbration of an answer, to questions forced upon him, consciously or unconsciously, since his appearance on earth'' (Radin 1956: xxiv).

is not only the mediator par excellence in myths between binary oppositions, but also symbolic in fact of the very 'myth-making processes of the human mind itself.'.

In his seminal essay 'The Structural Study of Myth,' Levi-Strauss chose the trickster as the definitive model for the structuralist method of interpreting myth. Taking Levi-Strauss' observations to their logical conclusion, several scholars have argued that the trickster is not only a mediator par excellence, but actually symbolizes the very 'myth-making processes of the human mind itself.' Without mediation, binary opposition remains static. The trickster and the angelic vice regent embody the dialectical nature of mythical thinking... the transformation of binary into trinary structure.'

's function is to add disorder to order and so make a whole, to render possible, within the fixed bounds of what is permitted, an experiment of what is not permitted.

For Karl Kerenyi the function of the Trickster was 'to add disorder to order and so make a whole, to render possible, within the fixed bounds of what is permitted, an experiment of what is not permitted' (ibid:185).

is one who reflects an alternative religious form held by common people, a Godless humanism, a religion of laughter that celebrates human capabilities.

Mac L. Ricketts argues that ' the trickster mythology reflects an alternative religious form held by common people a godless humanism, a worldly religion, a religion of laughter that celebrates human capabilities and responds to the gods by challenging them' (Gill & Sullivan 1992:309).

trickster, n.Definitions

trickster