ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the archetypal aspects of the relationship of professional caregivers such as hospice workers with patients at the end of life, based on their reported experience. The experience of hospice workers is assumed to be similar to that of medical personnel, therapists, volunteer and employed caregivers working in similar situations, and the discussion make no differentiation based on professional occupation. The hospice worker/caregiver has a role in holding, helping to find meaning, and validating the experience. Jung thought that images or situations could activate, or constellate archetypes and enhance consciousness. For Jung, 'Any activated archetype can appear in projection, either into an external situation, or into people, or into circumstances in short, into all sorts of objects'. Contemporary authors have built on Jung's definition of archetype and remained consistent overall with a shaping role on consciousness of the activation of archetypes.
