# Instincts and the Gut/Head/Heart Triads



## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

it seems to me that Instinctual Variants also have a head, heart or gut energy regardless of the E type of the individual

Sexual Instinct: Gut center 
the sexual instinct is raw, instinctual, driven by powerful desire and tends to act first, think later.

Social Instinct: Heart Center
the social instinct concerns itself with the well being of the group (be it their peer group, their community, their family etc), how the group views them and accepts/rejects them and "catching up" with others

Self Preservation Instinct: Head Center
the self preservation instinct is the most cautious of the instincts. alert to physical danger and aware of how the world around them will affect them, Sp doms are more likely to be strategic, plan head and think and act with the consequences in mind.


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## kaleidoscope (Jan 19, 2012)

That's a bit of a forced categorization. I find that 2s, 4s, 7s, and 8s all seem SX-ish (for different reasons) despite belonging to different triads. Attachment types (3, 6, 9) usually appear to be SO-ish even if it's their blind spot. 1s and 5s look SP-ish.


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

kaleidoscope said:


> That's a bit of a forced categorization. I find that 2s, 4s, 7s, and 8s all seem SX-ish (for different reasons) despite belonging to different triads. On the other hand, 1s and 5s usually seem more SP ish. Attachment types (3, 6, 9) usually appear to be SO-ish even if it's their blind spot.


I'm not categorizing enneagram types, I'm categorizing instinct variants, independent of core type


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## kaleidoscope (Jan 19, 2012)

Swordsman of Mana said:


> I'm not categorizing enneagram types, I'm categorizing instinct variants, independent of core type


Can you really separate triads from core types?



> Self Preservation Instinct: Head Center
> the self preservation instinct is the most cautious of the instincts. alert to physical danger and aware of how the world around them will affect them, Sp doms are more likely to be strategic, plan head and think and act with the consequences in mind.


I doubt 7s would relate to this, except if their dominant instinct is _actually _SP.


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

kaleidoscope said:


> Can you really separate triads from core types?


yes, because I am not talking about the actual E types at all here. I am talking about energy, the areas of the body they are related to and how instinctual variants are related to similar parts of the body.



> I doubt 7s would relate to this, except if their dominant instinct is _actually _SP.


then you don't know many self preservation 7s. (I'll spare you the rant about the the stereotype of 7s being impulsive party animals who don't know how to plan or take consequences into consideration. self preservation 7s in particular are a strange breed and fit few if any of the 7 stereotypes).


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## kaleidoscope (Jan 19, 2012)

Swordsman of Mana said:


> then you don't know many self preservation 7s. (I'll spare you the rant about the the stereotype of 7s being impulsive party animals who don't know how to plan or take consequences into consideration. self preservation 7s in particular are a strange breed and fit few if any of the 7 stereotypes).


That's why I said, not many 7s would relate *EXCEPT *if they were SP-first, in which case they would :tongue:

Anyway, perhaps the cautiousness of the SP triad would fit the head center (especially types 5 and 6). I do see how SO would manifest itself in the heart triad, since they're concerned with how others see them. But I read somewhere that the SP instinct is correlated with the gut triad, so IDK.


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## Swordsman of Mana (Jan 7, 2011)

kaleidoscope said:


> That's why I said, not many 7s would relate *EXCEPT *if they were SP-first, in which case they would :tongue:


ah, I misread



> Anyway, perhaps the cautiousness of the SP triad would fit the head center (especially types 5 and 6). I do see how SO would manifest itself in the heart triad, since they're concerned with how others see them. But I read somewhere that the SP instinct is correlated with the gut triad, so IDK.


Sp tends to deal more with delayed gratification and lacks the impulsive nature of the gut triad


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## Entropic (Jun 15, 2012)

I agree. As an sp dom I'm not very impulsive. Sometimes I'm overly cautious. Whether I think sp is ego-related (if that's what you're saying gut = id, head = superego, heart = ego? That makes no sense but whatever) or not I don't know though. I think I have a poor access to my head area as I only get it as a weak wing to my enneagram 5 and as an integration path of my 4 wing.


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## sodden (Jul 20, 2009)

I just posted something from the Fauvres where they say self pres mimics the instinctive triad, which makes sense to me because it's the most primal reaction, attending to your personal bodily needs. They say sexual mimics image/heart related due to the drive to bond (l_ook what I'm doing to get your attention! Do you love me now, mom? dad?_) while social mimics head, which also makes sense because social relations tend to be more intellectual- group negotiations are less felt, more human/social animal constructs.

Notice the use of the word mimic. They actually don't have anything to do with each other.

I love how both of @kaleidoscope and @Swordsman of Mana's avatars are striking the same pose. Ach, the angst!


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## kaleidoscope (Jan 19, 2012)

@brainheart

Hey, that makes sense! SX and heart triad do seem more comparable. 

And LOL, so true. Didn't even notice.


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## amongfirstslugs (Jun 23, 2012)

Interesting! I am a heart type who is sx-dom and empathizes very well with the gut center.


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## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

@Swordsman of Mana

I found this, which may-or-may not relate to what you're talking about.


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