ABSTRACT
Jungian interpretations of individuation normatively legislate for the optimum psychic balance between masculinity and femininity. Such foundationalist norms of gender distinctions are reflected in many Jungian positions on lesbianism. Although C. G. Jung insists on the empirical character of his psychic research, he nevertheless recognises, in contrast to Klein, the dangers of establishing psychic analysis as a doctrinal system. The Jungian tradition exemplifies the vacillation between the phenomenological emphasis on interpretations of experience and meaning and the 'scientific' claim to establish universal norms of the psyche which can be empirically verified. Like Sigmund Freud and his followers, Jung claims to elucidate the 'inner' workings of the psyche, its processes and dynamics. But he does not reduce psychic events to early phantasies of biological entities; he analyses images and symbols which are antecedent to the individual psyche, yet arise within it.
