ABSTRACT
The brilliant psychoanalyst-philosopher Paul Schilder expressed the situation somewhat differently: our strivings always aim at values. These are of two kinds: a, of low order, attached to things; b, of higher order, pertaining to thing structures. The delayed pain–pleasure response is in most cases bolstered by the establishment of values. The outcome of the conflict will depend on the intensity of the impulse and the intensity, or better, importance of the value or values involved. The values involved will depend on circumstances. Matrimony is too a high value and it will cause our girl to postpone or even give up the gratification of her impulse. The same girl visits a wealthy aunt whose money she might inherit some day and is proudly offered aunt’s specially made cookies; the value of prospective wealth may conquer the value of being thin and the girl can indulge her impulse to eat.
