Book excerpt: The societal web of life is underpinned by one concept - that of Self and Other - which emerged earlier in this century. The concept has received a new formulation within the field of the phenomenology of life and the human creative condition, finding a foothold, a point of reference that radiates novel, seminal insights. It is nothing other than the creative fulcrum of human functioning. The self-individualisation of the human being, as revealed in the present collection, is existentially and vitally intertwined with that of the Other. Tymieniecka's seminal idea of the `trans-actional' is explored in this collection of essays, which reveals a variety of significant perspectives, weaving the cycles of the human universe of existence in an essential oscillation between the Self and the Other. In this oscillation we throw out our existential tentacles, trying to gain a living space with respect to each other, all the while engaging in a mutual creative prompting and attunement.