According to the conceptions of Schopenhauer the human organism seeks to achieve, not so much the state of pleasure, as the avoidance of, and relief from, pain. This philosophical tenet receives more practical consideration in Bousfield's work. Pleasurable affect, to his way of thinking, is directly dependent upon, and proportionate to, the release of tension, which is invariably painful. He sets forth this view in challenge to the doctrine elaborated by Freud in “Beyond the Pleasure Principle” which emphasizes the conditioning influences brought to bear through the “instinct of self-preservation.” When, for example, an organism attempts to protect himself against a formidable stimulus, the author can see in this act only the pleasurable release of a painful tension. In support of his contentions he cites the work of Chalmers Mitchell on young animals. The animals, when placed in the proximity of an animal enemy to whom they were natural prey, displayed no visible signs of perturbation. If actually attacked, however, they did show