640 THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF INDIVIDUALITY 



mands arising in the contingencies of these struggles he may alter and shape his 

 inner psychical goods, add to them or subtract from them, and modify his per- 

 sonality picture. The opportunist or politician readily sells certain inner psychi- 

 cal goods, his convictions, principles, for the advantages of material and dis- 

 tinctive psychical goods. If the personality picture, and in particular the "I" 

 around which it centers, becomes unduly prominent in all social manifestations, 

 an individual is judged to be vain. Very often this is a reaction of a compen- 

 satory character in one in whom social injuries make the personality picture 

 very conscious and prominent. Related to these processes is the self-conscious- 

 ness frequently associated with painful discoordination, also the result of social 

 injuries experienced by sensitive individuals. 



While, thus, simple psychical goods are needed for the maintenance of the 

 bodily and psychical organism in a healthy state, it is especially the individual 

 distinctive psychical goods received from and given to others, and above all, 

 the inner psychical goods that differentiate one individual from another, which 

 individualize human beings in the highest degree ; on the other hand, distinc- 

 tive psychical class goods, even when they serve as a source of self-elevation 

 and of security and strength for one's own individuality, as a rule tend to 

 submerge the individual, making of him a mere representative of a certain 

 group. 



Such are the main factors underlying the social struggle; and they also 

 are its objectives. Which of these objectives occupies a pivotal position in 

 a certain constellation or phase in the life of a person depends to a consider- 

 able extent, although not entirely, on accidents, on suggestions received. 

 This is the foundation on which our choices and decisions are made. Material 

 goods are so important a factor in this social struggle, as far as it concerns 

 the attitudes and actions of wider groups, largely because they satisfy the 

 most urgent needs and also because they are the least individualized and can, 

 therefore, most readily unite people of the most divergent kind. Psychical 

 goods are much more individualized and therefore can less readily lead to 

 mass movements ; but they have done so in the religious wars of the past and 

 they often do so even now, as, for instance, in the nationalistic struggles, and 

 when originators and leaders of political mass movements are spurred on by 

 certain constellations of inner psychical goods or by psychical injuries re- 

 ceived, or by an overwhelming desire for power and distinction rather than 

 by a desire for material goods. 



The objectives of the natural and social struggle affect the daily life of 

 every individual and in a twofold way ; in all his efforts his desire for material 

 and psychical goods, and in particular also for distinctive psychical goods, 

 enters as an important motive. Thus, in general, human beings carry on two 

 kinds of activities, one objective, the other subjective. Their objective 

 activity tends to increase the available amount of material goods and to con- 

 tribute new values to the psychical reservoir from which humans obtain what 

 is best in their inner psychical goods ; this is an activity which tends to in- 

 crease the health of body and soul in the life of an individual and of the group. 

 In this manner the values of science and ethics are created. There is added to 



