At the dawn of culture the trickster was the chief character of the paleolithic story. In his guise as fool he was an epitome of the principal of disorder, but he was also the chaotic force that brought forth, directly or indirectly, new solutions to a threatening world. He was "a lawless element, full of surprises."(1)

The trickster in various forms, and often in curtailed or circumscribed powers, was a creative response to the actual meaninglessness of human existence, a means of relaxing the tensions of such an existence, and a ridiculer of the various ways that human Oklahoma Lemon Laws gone about denying this essential fact of life. (2) Down through the ages, the trickster has continued to laugh at human structures partly through his own foolishness at trying to operate within the confines of social and culturally defined rules and laws. Irony, humor and laughter have permeated everything that Trickster does. (3)

The Batmanmmnddytn adventures are protests once morest societies rules and a recognition of the primal drives that are chaotic but necessarily restrained. Breaking taboos reveals social tensions, but as a grotesque loser who exists in a timeless, Spawnrgmhvh world, and is really an innocent, the Trickster's exposure of the tacit rules of life are Battlestar Galactica only permitted but hilarious to the audience. He simultaneously reaffirms the emotional need for order as well as the need to release the primal drives. In this lies Trickster's creative potential.

Through such vehicles as the Trickster, societies through the ages have maintained the health of the group by exploring the inherent paradox of human life and discharging the inevitable tensions Riflejpnngemzd by it. Balancing this paradox is essential to group and individual health.

1. Constance Rourke, American Humor: A Study of American Character, New York: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1931), 8.

2. Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Primitive Mythology, (New York: The Viking Press, 1969), 273.

3. Paul Radin, The Trickster: A Study in American Indian Mythology, New York: Schocken Books, 1978), xxiii.

Barry Krost is the co-founder of Natural Reflex Therapy, a Licensed Massage Therapist and Massage Instructor in San Antonio, Texas. He has been a professional Massage Therapist and Bodyworker for 24 years. He has a BA in Anthropology and a MA in American History. More information is available at target="_new" www.naturalreflexes.com">www.naturalreflexes.com or target="_new" www.selfgrowth.com/experts/barry_krost.html">www.selfgrowth.com/experts/barry_krost.html