The master is in relation to himself, and selfconsciousness is constituted, only through the mediation of servile consciousness in the movement of recognition; but simultaneously through the mediation of the thing, which for the slave is initially the essentiality that he cannot immediately negate in pleasurable consumption, but can only work upon, elaborate (bearbeiten); which consists in inhibiting (hemmen) his desire, in delaying (aufhalten) the disappearance of the thing.