Values are the motivating power of man’s actions and a necessity of his
survival, psychologically as well as physically.
Man’s values control his subconscious emotional mechanism that functions like a
computer adding up his desires, his experiences, his fulfillments and
frustrations—like a sensitive guardian watching and constantly assessing his
relationship to reality. The key question which this computer is programmed to
answer, is: What is possible to me?
There is a certain similarity between the issue of sensory perception and the
issue of values. . . .
If severe and prolonged enough, the absence of a normal, active flow of sensory
stimuli may disintegrate the complex organization and the interdependent
functions of man’s consciousness.
Man’s emotional mechanism works as the barometer of the efficacy or impotence
of his actions. If severe and prolonged enough, the absence of a normal, active
flow of value-experiences may disintegrate and paralyze man’s
consciousness—by telling him that no action is possible.
The form in which man experiences the reality of his values is pleasure.