The Trickster In Psych

Looking back, every culture has their own set of myths and legends. While many of these stories differentiate depending on the society, from which they came, there are also many similarities between them. One of the largest similarities is the character, known as the trickster; a trickster is someone who cannot be fully defined, but who also has many traits which allow people to identify him as a trickster. The trickster character can be seen as essential to myth because they are what drive the story; without the trickster, the plot could cease to exist, or dramatically change. A good, modern day, example of the trickster character would be Shawn Spencer from the television show Psych.

The very first episode of Psych starts with Shawn waiting in the police station to be rewarded for calling in a tip, or so he thought. In actuality, the police believe that he helped to commit the robbery due to the information he was able to provide. After failing to prove his innocence, Shawn quickly comes up with the idea to convince everyone he is a psychic. He is able to

easily do this by using extraordinary observation and reasoning skills (Ironically, these same skills are what caused him to be suspected of participating in the crime, in the first place). Because of this deceit, Shawn must now help with a kidnapping case and continue to prove that he is truly psychic. While Shawn’s original motivation was to escape being arrested, he comes to realize that he enjoys solving crimes and obtaining the attention that comes with it; leading him to open a private- detective agency.
In Lewis Hyde’s, “Trickster Makes This World” he states “Trickster starts out hungry, but before long he is master of the kind of creative deception that, according to a long tradition, is a prerequisite of art” (Hyde).

Shawn starts off wanting to avoid being arrested, but as time goes on, he becomes more and more elaborate with his “visions” allowing people to fall even deeper into the deception that is his psychic abilities. While Shawn may use his skills to solve crime after crime, he also tricks people into believing he is actually psychic. This makes him out to be a very ambiguous person because while he does good deeds, it also shows that he can be a very manipulative person and take people’s trust for granted. Even after taking away his cunning nature, there is still the question, does he truly want to help people, or is he doing this because it is fun and he enjoys the challenge of solving a new

crime.
In Norse mythology, Loki is a giant but lives among the Aesir; because of this he doesn’t belong to any side as-well he belongs to both sides. Just as Loki is not considered a giant nor an Aesir, Shawn is not considered to be a member of the police nor is he just a mere bystander. Because of this ability to cross the boundary between law-enforcement and citizen, he has the freedom to investigate on his own and will often ignore procedure, giving him an upper-hand. Using this freedom, he typically ends up ahead of the cops and is able to drop hints or solve the case using his “psychic” abilities. Furthermore, just as Loki constantly causes problems for the Aesir, Shawn seems to always be a nuisance for the police. This also shows Shawn’s ability to transcend borders because, though he is constantly bringing chaos with him, he is someone who is needed by the police so that order can be once again found and justice can be properly served.