Worringer is discussing the evolution of an aesthetic system. This system is inherent in the culture. It has depended on the psychological positioning of the people. He looks at why we have the urge to abstract; be it man's need for religious transformation, for a way to untangle oneself from the craziness of the outside world or to  hold an understanding of that world that gives one greater confidence. With this confidence one has the "impulse of self-alienation  as its most profound and ultimate essence."