The trickster is not a person, a character or a motif, but rather a metaphor for change. In myths and fairytales, it stands for controversial or even negative things: chaos, rebellion, foolishness, failure, roughness and rudeness, lack of stability and control, irrational and uncivilised behaviour. Mythological tricksters are famous for their stupidity: they cannot control their body, they steal, they blunder, they break taboos and disregard prohibitions, they eat things that are not supposed to be eaten. And they always manage to challenge those in power - something none of us normal people aware of our mortality would do: Prometheus steals fire from the gods of the pantheon, Loki kills Baldr (the god of light and purity), and North American tricksters variously enrage local gods, chiefs and giants. For these transgressions, tricksters are often locked up in caves, chained to rocks, stuffed into bottles where they stay for centuries, or restrained in other ways. Often they lose their magical abilities and simply become human, like the North American trickster Wakdjunkaga from the Winnebago cycle. Becoming human, fully joining the social order and having to deal with reality is the worst type of 'imprisonment' a trickster could endure. 

The trickster is neither an entirely negative nor a totally positive phenomenon, but a force that stirs up change within systems and structures. In other words, it stands for innovation and movement within an organised framework, be it a social order, a family, an organisation or a single mind. Tricksters introduce chaos into order because it is important that any system remembers the fact that it is an artificial construct lest it becomes despotic and rigid. Meanwhile, uncontrolled, unpredictable change is as perilous as stagnation, hence the motifs of imprisonment and restriction. The trickster’s childish impatience, its rapture and joy, its determination to break out of the narrow frame into which he was placed by the system, are all linked to the desire to become oneself – a psychological and intellectual entity that is independent from the social structure. 

What tricksters defy, in fact, is the very notion of 'normality': we are only as normal as our society tells us we are. Norms and rules are defined by those in power; those holding positions of authority. We do not question them, but people playing the role of the trickster do. These people can be artists, writers, inventors, comedians, rebels or even revolutionaries. Creative individuals make particularly good tricksters because they strive to say something new, and to introduce the products of their creativity into society. In this sense, creativity is dangerous because it has the potential to alter the social order. That is why certain political orders, such as the Soviet Union or contemporary China, have limited creative people's rights to induce havoc in the social and political rigidity.  

A trickster is someone who raises his or her voice in the crowd of 'yes men', like Sophocles's Antigone, and announces the unpalatable truth that 'the emperor has no clothes'. This is a stupid thing to do indeed, because one cannot predict the reaction of the authorities one has exposed. Structures and systems do not like exposure, challenge or change. But then again, the trickster is a fool. He never thinks about the consequences, but only about the truth.

 Yet, structures are also important, as long as they are questioned and challenged.  As anyone who is terrified of flying will confirm, we do not want ‘an accidental’, unpredictable impulse to govern out world. Children of modernity, we want to feel safe in the increasingly tricksterized, fragmenting world. We want to rely on the transport system to get us to work every morning. We want to know that, in case of a serious disaster, man-made and well-organised structures such as the police, healthcare system and fire emergency services will respond effectively and on time. We want to live in the world in which criminals are punished and aggressive impulses are not openly expressed. We expect people to control their sexual instinct in public because we do not want to be harassed or raped. Modern public places are complex and dangerous, as is the hectic modern life, which means that our behaviour should be regulated by a number of social protocols. In other words, we are supposed to subscribe to the Kantian Imperative which forms the moral base of any Western society. We want to feel protected and looked after, and the trickster impulse is certainly not a ‘good enough parent’ (to use Winnicott’s term), for its aim is to destabilize – not to soothe or to protect.  

The trickster or the system would not survive on their own. The system contains the trickster, and the trickster keeps the system alive. The key is to find a balance between two.