Symbolically-Instinctivised

Symbolically-Instinctivized



We are also creatures "prone to anxiety, extremely helpless in his natural state, almost entirely devoid of instincts." Therein lay the paradox.

Evolution has programmed the animal world to act automatically in certain ways under certain conditions. Humans have lost a good bit of these programmed responses because we have an ego that places our responses on hold until we have had time to reflect and construct a non-programmed response.

Humans create the world we live in; it is a virtual world constructed principally because of the neurosis we have developed in the first five years of our life.Questions for discussion

Do you think that humans have replaced the basic animal instincts with symbolic type instincts as the author notes?

Do you know how the ego acts so as to make our modified instinctual behavior work?