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Instinct in humans.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Just a note:

The new term for instinct in humans is, Genetic Endowment since it is thought to be passed on from parent to child through DNA. This is more in line with the thought that instinct can be modified to fit environmental necessity. There are those that say it is not an instinct unless it is common in all members of a species and that it can not be modified and that it has total control.

An example would be suckling.

Davit.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

Vincenza

Attachment theory is scary if you get fixated on one of the four types. But the fact is that if you know you are a certain type due to your upbringing and it is not one you want you can change it.

Say you come from a family of abuse, mental or physical. A combination of inherited instinct, core beliefs from family life and associated beliefs and actions tends to keep a person in that group. But if you know why then CBT can change your thought patterns even though the deck is loaded against you. But first you have to know why it is. You can't fix something if you don't know why it is broke. But inherited instinct is the reason it takes three years to totally change the group your offspring will be in. But even that is no reason to give up and not do the CBT. Now we are not talking serial killers here who have a defect in the connections in the cerebral cortex so that they do not understand right from wrong. Here we are talking just a misplaced connection going to the wrong emotion pocket. That can be changed. But a defect where there is no emotion pocket to go to obviously can't be changed. That is not the type of person we are dealing with here. That is major major mental disease.

But just having misguided connections is probably quite common in us due to upbringing.

Now back to the question. Why would CBT not work since we are controlled by previous actions and thoughts memory. So using CBT techniques to build appropriate pathways and repetition to set them would work. It is again a case of last used first opened.

How else do you explain children from under privileged parents becoming more than there parents. In animal breeding it is called throw backs when their DNA does not fit the pattern of their parents.

I believe that even people with BPD can change but in that case CBT doesn't work it takes a different technique. CBT works on thought. But that is a different subject.

Davit.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 1853

Hi Davit,

I think your followers will increase 10-fold if you are able to find out how couples stay together and why!

Your musings are always interesting.

How would you say a treatment like CBT is related to attachment theory? (you may have discussed this in another thread?

Thanks,

Vincenza, Health Educator

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

museluver.

There are two critical periods in a child's life. The first eleven months when the cerebral cortex connects all the emotional storage bags so to speak and the next six years up to the age of seven when the child fills them. It is still ongoing but not as critical after seven. This is the period when a persons emotions decide what to tie too and when core beliefs that are built are the strongest. After that period a person can modify these ties but it takes more work and the original ties are still there and the tendency is to use them. It doesn't help that the average person is not aware that this period in life is so controlling or they would study it looking for faults or damage to correct. But in the average person without a panic or mental disorder there is no need to fix anything.

Now the scary part. If pollutants can cause physical changes causing cancer and other diseases, do they also cause chemical changes in our minds. Are we what we eat?

Is that why the twins had altered DNA?

God help us if the Government decides to make guidelines in an attempt to control our DNA.

Imagine seven billion clones if they got it wrong. A plot for another horror movie but possible.

Back to the twins. The changes show that it is possible to change how we are even if the parameters are set. A person still has to want to. And then there are relationships. What if two people do not change in the same way? Then there is only acceptance of how the other person is and communication. Bullying does not work. It takes work but it takes work on both sides once the novelty of differences wears off. A project for the future, studying couples that stay together and why.

I really am an information junky.

Davit.

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 59

Davit please don't ever apologize for your "babbling" , you are much further along in this program than a lot of us and we value your wisdom, sometimes reading the educational pages does not register with me, but when I read your posts I can relate to a lot of the things you say.

I was interested in your post today, I once saw a documentary about identical twin brothers, both well known scientists, in the USA , you maybe saw it too, they had exactly the same DNA. They were given a series of tests, blood, weight, brain activity etc, and asked to return in exactly 12 months time, but not to discuss what each other was doing with their lives.

They lived in different parts of the country, lived different lifestyles, eating different foods, living in different environments and doing different things each day, although they were identical. They also had the same thoughts.

On returning to the lab to have their tests re-done, I was amazed to discover that although they had both continued being very sporty, it seemed that the environment and the way they had spent the last 12 months ( diet etc) had actually changed their DNA, so it was no longer identical. It had also changed their outlook on life, the lazier one whom had put on weight was now depressed whereas the other who had kept off the junk food was extremely happy.

I know this is not quite the same as your innate theory, just thought it was fascinating as I have identical twin daughters and although their DNA is identical they are totally different.

When I get down these days I just think about my children, I find twins, multiple births fascinating, I love watching them interact.

Just a little story to share

12 years ago 0 +0 / -0 6252

I have been studying this because after reading "attachment theory" I wanted to see if we have left our instincts behind and are just living on learned patterns. According to all I have read apparently not although in humans it seems control is 50/50 where in animals it is 95% for inherited instinct. This inherited instinct explains why siblings can be so different. Inherited attitudes may not even be the same because of inheritance from either side of the DNA that makes us up. Environment makes up the other half which is learned. In a stable environment with little change all individuals would be similar but not exact. (the movie "little women" is an example). But if people move around or children go to different schools or have different friends or environments then the 50% that is learned will be different. The learned part can override the inherited part and becomes instinct in the offspring if it is strong enough. This is why Attachment theory says it takes three years of attempt to change a pattern in a family.

It can be done though according to those that have studied this. So if you don't like the way you are there is hope even if it is an inherited tendency. You can change even if it is personality you want to change rather than thought. You just need the information to understand why and how. Another factor is that we are all born with a cerebral cortex that is empty except for a lot of individual pockets where our emotions are stored. Desire and environment dictates how these pockets will be tied together. Once tied together they dictate how we react and therefore some of our reactions can be inappropriate if that is what we learned and used to tie them together. The good news is that there is a lot of room for expansion so patterns can be overrode by repetitive different actions so that the new pathways built are the ties used now instead of the older unwanted ones. Of course it has to be consistent because the original ties will still be there.

Okay I am just babbling here because I found it interesting and wanted to share it. It is totally unnecessary to doing the program to get better. Just interesting reading. We really are very complicated people, different and individual. More a reason for feeling sorry for people than mad at them when they are different or fail. Although some of their failings are learned some is not their fault. A good reason for forgiving oneself for our own failing. It is not all our fault. Failing to change when we can is though.

Davit.

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Instinct in humans.