LECTURE: Carol Shumate, Ph.D., "How the Trickster Sabotages Us to Save Us"

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How the Trickster Sabotages Us to Save Us

April 24 & 25, 2016

By Carol Shumate, PhD*

Slide Lecture, April 24: How the Trickster Sabotages Us

The trickster is a kind of psychological poltergeist, the loose cannon on the deck of the psyche. At  the precise moment when we think we have got things under control, the trickster overturns them. The trickster can be a hilarious jokester—except when we are the butt of its joke.

Jung identified the  mechanism for trickster-related mishaps with the Greek term enantiodromia, which we could call a  trickster reversal. A trickster reversal is an occurrence that arrives with no warning and produces the  opposite result from that intended.

Hitler’s chief trickster event was the defeat of his highly trained,  combat-ready sixth army at Stalingrad by the ill-equipped, poorly trained Russian army. After Hitler’s  defeat, Germany became an exemplar of the democracy that Hitler expressed hatred for, and a  magnet for those whom he viewed as untermenschen (subhumans)—immigrants from less developed  countries seeking refuge from authoritarian regimes. Whereas Hitler strove for racial purification,  postwar Germany became a melting pot of migrant races.

Although a trickster reversal may be  triggered by a narcissistic inflation as in Hitler’s case, altruists are also subject to trickster reversals. Professor Shumate will provide examples of trickster reversals and will analyze the psychological  conditions that trigger them. 

Brief Bio

Carol Shumate, PhD, taught at Pacifica Graduate Institute for more than a decade, prior to which she taught humanities at the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, and Yale University. Her book Projection and Personality Development via the Eight-Function Model  was published by Routledge in  2021. Her current book-in-progress, Trickster Strategies for a Narcissistic Culture, shows how psychological intelligence can aid survival in a trickster culture. She edits the journal Personality Type in Depth which she founded in 2010, and she has given numerous workshops for Jungian analysts in training. 

To learn more, visit Professor Shumate’s website at ShumateDepthPsychology.com .

*Professor Shumate gave a Salon to the Jung Society in 2024 titled “Possessed by Wotan: Ancient & Modern Currents of a Nazi Mythology.” This presentation will follow that one by analyzing the attractive power of archetypal possession, based on her recent research.