The Psychology of The Fool

The fool is one of the most relatable, intriguing and recurring figures in the world. There have been fools who have caused surprise and laughter since time immemorial. We worship folly by seeing it in people and in the world and by willingly displaying it in ourselves. It is one of the timeless archetypes, which we all inherit at birth.

Many of us suffer from the absence of the fool in our lives. Frenetic and upright, we take ourselves too seriously. As William Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” Forgetting that playfulness is a basic human need, we wonder why we so easily become bored and exhausted, losing all capacity for spontaneity, authenticity, and passion. The antidote to this would be to give the fool archetype some space in our lives.

“The soul demands your folly; not your wisdom.” - Carl Jung

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⌛ Timestamps
(0:00) Introduction
(2:00) In Praise of Folly
(3:45) The Wise Fool
(5:15) The Fool as Truth-Teller
(6:24) Fool, Clown and Trickster
(10:24) The Medieval Court Jester
(13:54) The Shakespearean Fool
(14:38) Parsifal: The Quest for The Holy Grail
(17:47) Don Quixote
(20:02) Dostoevsky’s The Idiot
(22:17) The Fool as Hero
(22:54) Ivan The Fool
(24:50) The Fool’s Journey (Tarot)
(27:57) The Number Zero in The Fool
(29:32) Symbolic Transformations of The Fool in Tarot
(31:42) The Fool: Precursor to Transformation
(34:44) The Dark Side of The Fool
(36:04) The Fool and the Child Archetype
(36:45) The Fool: The Inferior Function
(38:08) The Holy Fool

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