Suppressed Clown Syndrome - The Psychology of Clown

The clown is a paradox. She wears the white face of death superimposed with the colours of life; she knows misery and suffering yet she makes us laugh; she wears poor rags and yet possesses all things; she is rejected and despised and yet we love her.

The clown makes mischief although she is innocent; she plays tricks on us, yet is full of good heartedness; she is absolutely assured and yet her world collapses; she is vulnerable but decisive, scathing but tender.

The clown both plays her part and comments upon it. She reveals wisdom in apparent foolishness and order in apparent chaos; she breaks the boundaries, thus affirming them and defies convention, thus challenging it.

She is crucified, but hilariously so. A thousand times she is put to death but again and again she rises in infinite hope and patient endurance, never losing sight of the stars as she trips in the dust, always ready to try the impossible and believe the unbelievable, ludicrous yet dignified, triumphing in failure.

In her honest interactions with people, the clown embodies trust, in her acceptance of her human helplessness she embodies humility. She can weep for the world and laugh at herself.

And we too thus laugh at ourselves. For this is the clown’s role - to remind us of our humanity, with all its bumbling embarrassments, shattered dreams, empty pretensions and naked frailty. We fall with her and then, at best, we raise our eyes with her from the dust.

On becoming your clown”
by Dianne Bodien Walter

“To be happy, kind and useful, this is the meaning of life.”
                                                                                   Chantal the Fairy