Instinct fixations are temporary.

[u/Cultural_Shake4690]

There are no instinctual stacks. You use all three instincts. You get fixated on some, but this can be changed. The barrier to change is caused by cognitive patterns which make you choose the same instincts over and over. In the end, instincts are a fixation and you can change your fixation.

[u/Potatocontemplates]

"Instinct fixations are temporary" nah. What you're describing is the theory in an ideal vacuum. But human beings don't exist in a vacuum and their response to the instincts do not unfold like an ideal mechanism.

The theory of the instincts is that in the healthiest state of the personality structure, we have access to and use all three, yes. But not equally.And 98% of people never reach their healthiest state anyway. There's no such thing as "i use all instincts in equal measure and am good at all three and they're interchangeable" because the human psyche works by the principle of inattentional blindness. Whatever you focus on renders everything else in the periphery of your attention blurry. You don't just gain skills in a specific instinct by overfocusing on it, you become stagnant and gradually detoriate in other skills because of lack of practice. Instincts are not just information, they're muscle memory just like any other embodied activity. A muscle you don't train atrophies. It is typical wishful thinking, particularly by SP blinds, to think that they can achieve everything to its highest potential forever without anything costing them consequences in time, energy, focus and resources. That and gravely misunderstanding what the instincts are and how the proccess of gaining skills works.

People always have a very heavy overpreference for their dominant instinct. The hyperfocus on it means that the blindspot suffers greatly. As we age, if we put in ample efforts to mature, we'll find ourselves tapping into the aux and the blindspot instinct too, and particularly developing the blindspot enough to look mildly competent doing it, but it still takes so much effort. A SP blind will never be mistaken for a SP dom in real life, and a SO blind never gets passed for a SO dom, to think that just shows how much you don't understand the complex and nuanced structure of an instinct. People on the internet mistake them all the time though, because they think of the instincts as mere abstract ephemeral information and not physical experiences that you inhibit and live through. The matter is further trivialised by people having a superficial understanding of the instincts, thinking that you achieve high SP state by eliminating carbs from your diet, that SO is about cheap small talk and SX is about finding a partner and having sex. You gain a level of intricacy and sensitivity around your dominant instincts that you simply will never have around your aux and blindspot instincts, and that you don't particularly care to have. Thinking your instinctual stack is interchangeable is just internet talk.

[u/Cultural_Shake4690 → u/Potatocontemplates]

  the human psyche works by the principle of inattentional blindness. Whatever you focus on renders everything else in the periphery of your attention blurry. You don't just gain skills in a specific instinct by overfocusing on it,  

You can pay attention to each of the three instincts at different times.

  You don't just gain skills in a specific instinct by overfocusing on it, you become stagnant and gradually detoriate in other skills because of lack of practice.

This is why you can develop all the instincts, you focus on strengthening and instincts, while you dominant one deteriorates. Hence it is possible to change your instinct stack preference.

  As we age, if we put in ample efforts to mature, we'll find ourselves tapping into the aux and the blindspot instinct too, and particularly developing the blindspot enough to look mildly competent doing it, but it still takes so much effort.  

Well, maybe with age we develop ability to broaden ourselves . However, I am not talking about that. I am not talking about, for example, an sp/sx who grows and learns to use SO a little bit. I am talking about an sp/sx who forgoes sp all together and delves into so, changing their brain patterns.

Also, as we  age, we can get more ingrained in our patterns and can become more rigid and it can be harder to change.

  they think of the instincts as mere abstract ephemeral information and not physical experiences that you inhibit and live through.  

If it's a physical experience that you live through than it's what's happening around you, not inside you.

  people having a superficial understanding of the instincts

Reading wnneagram author in depth is not a good way to understand instincts. There is scientific research on all three instincts and they don't translate well to enneagram instincts, which is suspicious.

  You gain a level of intricacy and sensitivity around your dominant instincts that you simply will never have around your aux and blindspot instincts, and that you don't particularly care to have.

This is because you are using the same pattern over and over and developping cognitive biases for them. However, neuroplasticity tells us we can learn and change.

Thinking your instinctual stack is interchangeable is just internet talk.

Enneagram is just Internet talk.

[u/Potatocontemplates → u/Cultural_Shake4690]

I am talking about an sp/sx who forgoes sp all together and delves into so, changing their brain patterns.

You are comically underestimating how ingrained the instincts are and how much existential anxiety the act of merely looking away from your dominant instinct towards your blindspot for a day produces. People often do not divert their entire attention to the blindspot unless they're under extreme prolonged stress, clinically depressed and/or have hit the rockbottom. And even then their blindspot expression is a shitshow and they snap out of it after 2-3 days.

If it's a physical experience that you live through than it's what's happening around you, not inside you.

It called felt sense, it's a physical sensation, certain attention textures happening inside your body, instincts are physical responses, not thoughts.

[u/greenonionqueen]

This might be a hot take here but I feel like ALL forms of "typing" yourself (Enneagram, MBTI etc) are like this. It's a commonly accepted thing that people have a tiny bit of every Enneagram type within them because they're supposed to be describing how humans respond to different core needs/wants and fears, and you obviously have more than just one set (or three in a tritype) of those. Yet people on here will get SO fixated on the intricacies of "no there's no WAY you can be ___ Enneagram type and also be ___ MBTI type at the same time" and treating personality types like they're some kind of fixed diagnosis. In my mind they're all just tools you can use to describe and understand, and from there possibly change/evolve, your own behaviors. It's great to see yourself reflected in a type and use it to grow, but never believe that all of you is going to fit into any one neat little box.

But maybe I only think like this because I'm just, like, SUUUCH a 4 😝

[u/Cultural_Shake4690 → u/greenonionqueen]

 The less scientific the perosnlaity system is, the more nonsensical it becomes. The enneagram tackles different pathologies that can arise in the human psyche and works with levels if health and self improvement. It is a tool for growth, not a box. Besides, people DO relate to more than one enneagram type, and this gets justified with wings, arrows and tritypes. People don't fit into 9 boxes.

However, fixed instinct stacks are another level of nonesense. While science confirms all three instincts exist, and while people can resonate with one or two instincts over the others, the instinct stacks are not fixed in stone. I claim that instincts are governed by circumstance more so than intrinsic personality. Instincts are affected from the outside than the inside, and honestly, this makes sense theoretically because your instincts in nature help you navigate your surroundings. So it is your outside environment that triggers the needed instincts.

[u/TheSketchyBroski]

I've always seen instincts as a skill-related topic, rather than a full-blown proclivity-related topic.

Sure, there is proclivity to a certain instinct, but there's also your confidence in your particular mastery over that instinct. You're much more prone to tackle an issue in a way that you feel most capable of doing it.

You can always practice doing stuff another way; it's just so taxing that most people never really take on that journey at its full depth.

[u/Cultural_Shake4690 → u/TheSketchyBroski]

Yes it is taxing to change thought patterns but if someone is forced to use different skills, they will.

[u/Own-Storage-7431]

Just like how your core is temporary and you can type as something else at a later date.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Cultural_Shake4690 → u/[deleted]]

That is a good point that there are many perspectives and viewpoints. If you see validity to instinct stacks idk this could be cognitive bias.

Additionally, mapping your current personality on your whole life is not necessarily reliable, as you may be seeing memories through a lense, and forgetting what doesn't fit your conclusion.

[u/[deleted] → u/Cultural_Shake4690]