ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an active imagination or, for those unfamiliar with Jungian practices, a thought experiment. Postmodernism has a fluid history that begins around the middle of the 20th century and slowly permeates the arts, culture, and scholarship. Charles Jencks, speaking as an architect and philosopher, offers a sweeping view when he asserts that "an intense commitment to pluralism is perhaps the only thing that unites every post-modern movement." The Jungian tradition has a long history of paying close attention to language, for a reason implied by Hauke's statement. Language has been given. Words have stories, some of them more intricate and paradoxical than others, which can explain the depth psychological predilection for etymology. Critical attention to language leads to a second key feature of postmodernism: emphasis on discourse, "the linguistic and social construction of reality" and the "interpretation and negotiation of the meaning of the lived world.".
