by nonapus

This is an excerpt from The Confusions of Young Torless. If you'd like some context or are interested in the book, you can get caught up by previewing the book on Amazon (it's on page 12 IIRC).

Anyway, here's the excerpt:

They are reactions of the brain. However, that to which one responds as the character or emotional core, as the line or timbre of a person; that compared to which their thoughts, decisions, and actions seem less definitive, seem accidental, replaceable; that, for example, which had attached Torless to the prince beyond all rational judgement; that ultimate, unmoving background, had at this time completely dissipated within Torless.

The part about the prince makes it a little more clear, but it still seems like a very convoluted way of letting us know that Torless' decisions and actions are lacking the guiding force of well-defined character/inner-being.