What is Trichotomy? - The Three In’s / Part 4

As mentioned on an earlier blog, Dr. Carl Jung was a prominent psychiatrist and counsidered to be the founder of analytical psychology. He is best known for his theory of the Collective Unconscious. Dr. Jung noted that the human psyche could be categorize into three segments; our ego which can be translated as being our conscious mind; our personal unconscious which refers to the unconscious mind; and our collective unconscious which refers to an obscurred source of collective knowledge. Jung postulates that collective unconsciousness has an unseen connection between one soul to another and additionally, it has a link to a higher order of intelligence.

Many other beliefs and theories have spawn from Dr. Jung’s work, and others in this field. Simply put, humans draw from their three internal sources to assess or react to an event. I classify these three inner mechanisms as Instinct, Intelligence, and Intuition. Permit me to demonstrate the inner working. I will convey three scenarios with minute differences in order to address each mechanism.

• INSTINCT:  You have purchase a house nestled in a thick forest. In the first year you witness a forest fire on the west side. Now in this scenario, you have never experienced fire. You have lived a sheltered life. So when you observe fire for the first time and being at a safe distance, the fire is non threatening to you. In fact it’s esthetically pleasing. Of course this all changes when you decide to get a closer look. The heat from the fire lights up your senses and your neuro-net, consequently you react. Your frightened and you flee for safety. There was no reasoning. It was an instinctive reaction. A matter of self-preservation;
• INTELLIGENCE:  Now its the second year at your house that is nestled in a thick forest. Thankfully your home had escape damages from the last year fire. However this time you observe a forest fire on the north side of your property. It’s no longer estheticly pleasing. You draw from an earlier experience, absorbing the panic you felt, the heat that discomforted you and you make an assessment. You decided to take action. Go to a safer place until the fire passes. You collated past events and applied intelligent reasoning. Your will is what seperates action from reaction.
• INTUITION:  And finally, its the third year at your house that is nestled in a thick forest. And again,your home had escape damages from the last year fire. Maybe its time to look for a safer house. Anyway, this time you noticed a forest fire on the east side of your home. You are about to go for safety when you can see that a muscular man is trapped in the fire. Your heart goes out to the man. You don’t even know this person but you feel for him. Should you go and rescue him? Should you risk your own life? If you are assessing his fate then it is highly unlikely that you will risk your life. If you react then you will find yourself in the fire helping him. We all have heard of courageous people and firefighters who run back into the blazing house to rescue a person. Instinct was self-preservation but Intuition is self-sacrificial. It is socially minded. It cares about others. And sometimes an intuitive gesture leads to self sacrifing. Your moral beliefs lives here. It can override the strongest instinct of them all - survival. It really depends on your core values.

Next week we will examine the charateristics of each mechanism.

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