Abstract Book of the 10th International Conference on Social Sciences in the 21st Century
Year: 2025
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The Phenomenology of Archetypes: Lived Experience and the Structures of the Collective Unconscious
Pakiza Gulmammad Aliyeva
ABSTRACT:
This paper investigates the ontological and epistemological intersection between phenomenology and archetypal theory, aiming to elucidate how collective symbolic forms are constituted and experienced in consciousness. Drawing upon Edmund Husserl’s conception of intentionality and C.G. Jung’s notion of the collective unconscious, the study proposes that archetypes function as transcendental-phenomenological structures mediating between subjective experience and shared cultural meaning. Through a phenomenological analysis of archetypal manifestations—such as the Hero, the Shadow, and the Self—it examines how these forms disclose themselves in lived experience, shaping perception, affectivity, and intersubjective understanding. It argues that archetypal configurations are not merely inherited psychic contents but dynamic horizons of sense through which the human subject encounters and interprets the social world. By integrating phenomenological method with depth-psychological insight, the paper contributes to a renewed philosophical framework for understanding the symbolic foundations of social and cultural reality.
Keywords: Archetypes; Embodiment; Intersubjectivity; Intentionality; Ontology of Consciousness; Phenomenology; Symbolic Meaning