Self Preservation Instinct Panels:
Jun 20, 2023
In 2021 The Art of Growth assembled panels of the 27 Subtypes.
Here are the Self Preservation Panels:
Instincts Introduction Episode
Integrating the instincts Episode
Self-Preservation Instinct Key Features
WELL BEING: This is the energy that is tuned into what the body needs to care for itself so there is physical wellbeing. This tunes us in to the balance of healthy activity, movement, and exercise as well as rest and sleep. Those tuned into their self-preservation energy are early responders to illness and cultivate knowledge of nutrition and cutting edge alternative therapies and self care practices. They focus on creating balance even in a busy life.
RESOURCES/ PRACTICAL KNOW HOW: Making proficient use of money, time, energy (and not wasting them) with practical know how about getting things done. Practical capacity to make money and apply their gifts to financial security. They establish predictable routines and structures to create order and deal with chaos.
HOME/ DOMESTIC NESTING: Attends to creating a cozy home life and infrastructure to build a life on. This energy builds a strong foundation of body and environment for safety, stability, and a secure environment for rest and recovery.
What are the Instincts
From a psychological perspective, instincts refer to innate, automatic, and unconscious patterns of behavior that are biologically and environmentally formed in humans and other animals. These instincts are essential for survival and play a crucial role in guiding our responses to various situations. They are often deeply rooted in our evolutionary history and have developed over time to aid in the adaptation and preservation of our species.
The instincts add a layer of clarity to the difference between people of the same Enneagram type. When examining instincts through the lens of the Enneagram, a personality system structured into nine different types, we can see how instincts play a vital role in shaping the expression of each type's core motivations and creates nuance to the behavior of the type. The Enneagram adopted the three fundamental instinctual variants: Self-Preservation, Social, and Sexual (also known as One-to-One).
Terms
Enneagram Type: One of the nine points where you fixate as your primary personality structure. Other adaptations and integrations are filtered through the core type.
Instinct: Your dominant instinct is the strongest of the three instincts in your personality structure. Your instinctual stack is the order in which your instincts fall with your dominant at the top and your resisted or repressed instinct at the bottom.
Subtype: The combination of your dominant instinct with primary Enneagram type. ie Self-Preservation 1 or SP1.
Update: What We Have Learned in the Last 5 Years of Studying the Instincts
Since these 2021 panels, our research has continued through more panels, coaching, and assessment data. We now see the description above as the developmental version of the instinct. It describes how the instinct shows up in our personal lives: caring for the body, building a home, and managing our own resources.
The Farmer Instinct (SP)
We also call this the Farmer instinct. In our book, Hunters, Farmers, and Teamers, we describe it as what happens when this instinct grows up and goes to work.
The Farmer is concerned with stability, rhythm, and sustainability. At home, that looks like caring for the body and building a secure foundation. At work, the same energy shows up as managing time, energy, and money so that what gets built will last. Farmers bring structure, systems, and resources to a team. They notice what is being wasted and what needs to be in place before the next step.
This is not only about routine. The Farmer manages resources to buy freedom, including the freedom to change their own rhythms when they choose.
We also now connect perfectionism to the Farmer instinct, not to any single Enneagram type.
Beyond the Subtype
Our instinct work started with the subtypes. On our panels, people who shared a subtype had a lot in common. As we listened, we heard the differences grow between people with the same dominant instinct and a different secondary instinct. That led us to look at the full instinct stack.
Each of the three instincts can sit first, second, or third, which creates six stacks. Combined with the nine Enneagram types, that gives us 54 distinct type expressions. We see your instinct stack and your Enneagram type as carrying roughly equal weight.
We have also learned that the instinct at the bottom of the stack is not always repressed. For some people it is neglected. For others it is resisted, avoided, or worried about a lot.
Find Your Stack
- Take the free Instinct Stack test: instinctstack.com
- Instincts class: Enroll here
- Enneagram class: Enroll here
- Read the book: Hunters, Farmers, and Teamers: Harness Human Instincts to Elevate Impact