As we saw earlier, Herbart considers representations to be the “self-preservings” of the psyche expressed in its, the psyche’s, own nature; their multiplicity stems from those disturbances which the psyche resists at each moment of its self-preservation (SW V: 387). Representations, once formed, must somehow remain in the psyche, or else no self-consciousness would be possible (SW V: 354; 387). Whenever a given disturbance lasts for a certain time, the new representations that are constantly springing into being at every moment begin to accumulate (SW V: 387). For the psyche’s self-preservings and the representations are one and the same, just in different relations (SW V: 401):