Tony Crisp Interpretation:
Our father is the great figure of original authority and strength in life—or lack of it. He therefore depicts relationship with outside authority or power. But there is also a cultural representation of what a father is, and each nation has particular ways of representing this. During our growth, and continuing throughout adulthood, we are confronted with literary, artistic, film, and dramatic representations of the role of father. These also form a powerful part of our inner “father.” These, along with the deeply inbuilt expectations at an almost biological level of what our father is or should be, form our internal male parent, and in synthesis form the “father” archetype. See animus above; father under . fool, clown, trickster In several cultures the fool appears under the guise of idiot, trickster, harlequin, clown, or jester. In the Japanese story Monkey, this character is portrayed as Pig. In Britain it is Reynard the Fox, and in the U.S. Brer Rabbit. Charlie Chaplin is an image in the modern world for this crazy, unpredictable, yet wise clown. Jung puts all these figures under the name of Trickster, who he says represents the earliest and least developed period of life—or the least developed side of our personality. Like Pig, Trickster is a figure whose physical appetites and senses dominate his actions and decisions. His thinking does not rise above his belly or his genitals. Not understanding finer feelings, his responses to other people appear crude, self-centered, cynical, and unfeeling. In some of the stories, however, the difficulties of his exploits gradually bring about a transformation and he becomes a man instead of an animal. But there can also be a wise fool.
The values, attitudes, and emotional or social responses we have absorbed from our family; the acceptance or tensions we feel in relationship with them; the support or pain we feel from parents and siblings. From our family we learn most of the positive and negative patterns of relationship and attitudes toward living that we carry into daily events. Father’s uncertainty in dealing with people, or his anxiety in meeting change, may be the roots of difficulties in those areas. If our mother is unable to develop a feeling contact with us, we may lack the experience of being able to love.