"You are going to die in a few days." Veronika and The Trickster - Week 2
Dr Igor - The Trickster
This is Week 2 of our month-long read of Veronika Decides to Die and last week we looked at the viewpoint of suicide as an archetype and how like all archetypes it can have two completely contradictory sides to its nature. On the one hand, it wants to cheat death of its power by taking control of its would-be demise, but if it discovers that death is already imminent then it will want to cheat death out of overshadowing the days it has left by wanting to be truly alive. Welcome to the Jungian archetype of the Trickster.
David Thewlis as Dr Blake (Dr Igor) in the 2009 movie version of Veronika Decides to Die
Week Two: Aug 8th - Pages 55 to 102
Carl Jung defined the trickster as “a collective shadow figure, a summation of all the inferior traits of character in individuals,” but also “a primitive ‘cosmic’ being of divine-animal nature,…which has prospects of a much higher development of consciousness based on a considerable eagerness to learn,…”
The trickster, in other words, is not entirely bad. He includes both poles—negative and positive. In his negative guise, he “takes on the sacred cows of civilization,” and does not hesitate to take advantage of whomever he can. On the positive end of the polarity, the trickster has “superhuman qualities” that can foster growth, learning, healing, and creativity.
In Paulo’s story, Dr Igor is the symbol for the trickster. He embodies the enigmatic qualities of the archetype. On the negative side, his madness is his belief that he is a genius and has discovered a cure for all human psychological ills and he’s experimenting on his patients to prove it. On the positive side, the lie he tells Veronika - that her heart is irreversibly damaged and she only has a week to live -seems to affect the cure and possibly proves his theory.
Veronika decides to live.
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