Strengthening the instinct of self-preservation can manifest itself in two opposite forms of behavior:

Passive defense — when a person runs from danger, hiding, digging trenches and dugouts, bypasses it for the quarter or pretends to be a hose, a corpse (reaction supposed death).

Active-defense — when the best method of protection is declared an attack, and is now “in the woods, the worst is we.”

The weakening of the instinct of self — preservation — when life becomes uninteresting, indifferent, and even a burden, and even if the mood is not to hell-everything, hide ropes and sharp objects, remove vinegar and medicines.

The perversion of the instinct of self — preservation is when a comrade does not kill himself, but bites hard, suddenly finding something extraordinarily attractive in self-torture, self-mutilation, swallowing all sorts of uneaten items, like family silver. Sometimes, however, the latter has a strictly defined purpose: for example, when a prisoner swallows a piece of razor tied to a thread, in order to cause stomach bleeding and end up in the infirmary, it is no longer a perversion of the instinct of self — preservation, but a simulation and a convict’s ingenuity.