The feeling of potency—and above all, in fact, for the subject at hand, the associated expression of potency—emanating from the joy of being are the most difficult of all to bring forth, because bringing them forth is nothing less than a resolution of the strongest and most painful tension of the human condition. This tension is as follows: for me, it is now a truth as robust as 1 + 1 = 2 that the originary, properly human joy, the source of every other kind of joy, is social joy, the joy of interacting with one’s fellow human beings; yet the rise of the feeling of potency within oneself, a necessary premise for any action whatsoever—which will correspond to the expression of this potency rising within oneself—makes the human being feel, and possibly become aware of, his individuality, of the fact that, as an acting subject, he is, in a very concrete sense, utterly alone, that he will always encounter the possible opposition of others in matters of will, as well as logical contradiction on the part of the other, and that this opposition and contradiction may in fine hinder his action. From the moment the feeling of potency rises in the subject and he begins to act, the question arises—and especially acutely if he has indeed brought forth this feeling of potency from the joy of his being—of whether others will follow him in his action or not, that is, whether the joy of being will have some continuity in action or not. This, to my mind, is the major tension of the human condition: joy versus concrete action aimed at attaining a goal. When the subject perceives that the feeling of potency he is trying to bring forth from the joy of his being produces only abortive offspring—generally because he has not sufficiently valued the other person’s point of view and the fact that the other person is taking part in this action that matters to him—that is when he may turn away from this dynamic of action and production, which in my view is the only one that is healthy from every human standpoint. The subject will then need to assess how far he is prepared to sacrifice the joy of his being, and thus his primordial, properly human health, in order to act effectively by exploring the unfolding of feelings of potency that might arise from other feelings of being.