Ricoeur focuses on the importance of symbols and linguistics within hermeneutic phenomenology. He is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. Other sources include the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology. He wanted to effectively unite social phenomenology and structuralism. The term "relativism" often comes up in debates over postmodernism, poststructuralism and phenomenology. Gestalt theory was also influential on phenomenology. Existential therapy is in turn philosophically associated with phenomenology. In practice, the MSE is a blend of empathic descriptive phenomenology and empirical clinical observation. Husserl's work was conducted as a transcendental phenomenology of consciousness. Merleau-Ponty's "Phenomenology of Perception" (1945) was recognized as a major statement of French existentialism. Yet to confuse phenomenology and ontology is an obvious error. It has since been described through phenomenology and microscopic theories. He also studied philosophy, more specifically phenomenology, and the psychology of language. Heidegger replaced Edmund Husserl's phenomenology of pure perception with his own linguistic phenomenology. The Abhidharmic project has been likened as a form of phenomenology or process philosophy.