Johann Friedrich Herbart’s contribution to psychology may be shrouded in mystery. In short, it takes us in many different directions. Some will emphasize his associationism and thus link him to the British empiricists and might also argue that he laid the foundation for experimental psychology. Others will emphasize that he was a student of Fichte, took over the professorship from Immanuel Kant, and was thus a clear representative of German idealism. In addition, it was neither in psychology nor in philosophy that he made his greatest impact, but rather in pedagogy. It is interesting to know that he also was a musical prodigy and could have had a brilliant career as a pianist. The purpose of this chapter is consequently to determine what might link these divergent tendencies in Herbart’s work. The starting point here is to be found in his pedagogical interest and a paradox faced by his contemporary educator Pestalozzi, namely that the poorest children were those who had the greatest difficulty in accepting the opportunity for a safe and good school experience. This paradox requires a better explanation of how and why ideas and perceptions appear intermittently in the human mind. The search for Herbart’s answer to this is carried out by linking several of his different and partly divergent contributions more closely. The findings of this analysis show that Herbart’s basic idea was that consciousness represents a dynamic process in which ideas constantly come and go, guided by needs and conflicting emotions. When it comes to representations, only one can dominate. A competing idea can appear, but it will never be able to gain equal weight unless it assumes dominance. Herbart’s most important finding, however, is that this dynamic in consciousness cannot be easily expressed through language. In order to grasp this dynamic in the interplay between the different ideas we have in our consciousness, Herbart also used other means of expression, such as differential equations from mathematics and harmony theory from music.