This book presents a systematic working out of the basic concepts of phenomenological psychology through an interdisciplinary synthesis of gestalt psychology and existential phenomenological thought. The author's theory returns to psychology's foundations and interrogates the psyche itself, applying it to the full range of human behavior as a living of value. This work is presented as a viable alternative to mainstream modern—Cartesian—psychology. The book's first half is devoted primarily to an examination of everyday meaning/value while the second half looks at the behavior of insight into meaning/value.

Table of Contents:
Preface 1. The Objective Space of Meaning Meaning Conventional Psychology's Approach to Meaning Descartes and the Rise of Modern Philosophy Objectivistic Psychology Inside and Outside in Modern Thought Psychology as Philosophy 2. Phenomenology Choices The Lifeworld Considerations of Method Phenomenological Psychology The Place of Everyday Meanings and Our Relation to Them Phenomenology's Theory of Intentionality 3. Existence Existential Phenomenology Meaning, Involvement, World The Present-at-Hand and Its Origin in the Ready-to-Hand The World and Other People Dasein: Openness to the World 4. The Existential Space of Meaning Meaning and Existence The Primacy of Perception The Existential Space of Meaning The Bodily Self The Bodily Self's Familiarity with Lived Space Closeness and Bringing Close Place The Existential and the Objective Spaces of Meaning 5. The Gestalt Logic of Meaning The Notion of Gestalt Gestalt Qualities A Gestalt Is Not the Sum of Its Parts A Gestalt as the Organization of Its Constituents Gestalt Quality as the Gestalt Itself A Gestalt Is Not More Than the Sum of Its Parts Organization and Variability The Complementarity of Gestalt Theory and Existential Thought 6. Requiredness The Nonarbitrary Character of Meaning Formation The Law of Good Gestalt Requiredness A Rose Is a Rose Dynamics: Within the World The Tenseness of the Good Gestalt Hierarchy of Requirednesses 7. Value Definition of Value A Gestalt as Value Itself The Demand Character of Value The Nonsubjective Character of Value Some Types of Value Psychological Theories of Value 8. The Behavior of Insight The Turn to Psychological Processes Köhler on Insight The Limitations of Köhler's Theory of Insight A Phenomenological Theory of Insight Insight into Value Insight into Negative Requiredness Manifestness of the Law of Requiredness Insight's Privileged Status The Nonoccurrence of Insight into Requiredness 9. Insight as Impact Insight as Impact and as Interpreting Impact as Being Affected by Meaning Impact as the Mattering of Meaning Impact as Difference Structurally Told upon One's Life Impact as the Holding Sway of Meaning 10. Insight as Interpreting Insight as the Activity of the Self Interpreting and Situatedness Interpreting as Imagining The Paradox of the Self and Its Meanings Insight as Responsible Situatedness 11. Feeling The Temporal Circle of Impact-Interpreting Disposition Disposition, Feeling, Insight The Positive or Negative Direction of Feeling Feeling and the Bodily Self Feeling No Inner Psychic State Feeling and Knowing An Illustration of Feeling: Fear Disturbed Disposition 12. The Fulfillment of Gestalt Psychology The Promise of a Nonobjectivistic Gestalt Psychology Review of the Conventional Approach to Perception Gestalt Psychology's Approach to Cognition The Objectivism of Gestalt Psychology Critique of the Objectivism of Gestalt Psychology The Existential Phenomenological Alternative 13. The Variability and Validity of Meaning The Decidability and Variability of Meaning The Variability of Meaning and Its Validity Interpreting, Variability, and Validity Criteria for Judging Meaning's Validity Balancing of Validities Variability and Validity in Objective and Existential Space 14. The Self-Others-World System Psychology Beyond the Subject-Object Split The Bodily Self-World System Structural Analysis of Behavior The Bodily Self-Other Selves-World System The Bodily Self-World System and Learning The Bodily Self-World System and Remembering The Bodily Self-World System and the Law of Good Gestalt The Event of the Bodily Self-World System Notes References Index