ABSTRACT
Bringing together the Jungian approach with that of phenomenology is, on the face of it, a rather curious undertaking. The way that Jung conceives of the psyche, and actually the world in general, is that it is imbued with unconscious activities that are purposeful and which have agency. For Jung the unconscious is structured in relationship to and with the world, as they exist in a reciprocal relationship. Much like the famous conundrum of which came first, the chicken or the egg, it is not clear whether for Jung meaning in the world is inscribed by the unconscious or whether the material world creates the conditions through which the unconscious may express itself. These two aspects of the conscious world, and the unconscious structures that enable psychological meaning to take place, are dependent one on the other. This type of relationship is a very long way indeed from the phenomenological approach, which has no need of the unconscious as an idea at all.
