The Instinctual Self - Body Triad
Types Eight, Nine, and One are formed around the distorted aspects of instinct, which are the sources of our life force and vitality. The Body Triad is concerned with body intelligence, basic life functions, and survival methods.
Although all personality types set self-boundaries, Types Eight, Nine, and One have special reasons: they try to influence the world with their personal will, but remain unaffected themselves. They attempt to influence, recreate, control, and prevent their surrounding environment, while not allowing their self-perception to be affected. In other words, these three types resist the influence of reality in different ways. They build a “wall” between what they consider to be self and non-self, creating a sense of wholeness and autonomy. The form of this wall varies depending on the personality type and individual.
Self-boundaries can be divided into two categories. The first type of boundary is directed towards the external world, usually corresponding to the body, but not always. For example, after cutting our nails, trimming our hair, or having a tooth extracted, we no longer consider these removed body parts as part of ourselves. Conversely, we may subconsciously view certain people as part of ourselves, including our home, spouse, or children, even though they are not physically part of our body.
The second type of boundary is directed inward. For instance, we say “I had a dream,” but we don’t consider ourselves to be that dream. Some of our thoughts or feelings are separated from our identity, and we certainly identify with the thoughts or feelings of others. Of course, different people identify with different thoughts or feelings to varying degrees. Some may consider anger as part of the self, while others view anger as an insulator. However, in all cases, it’s important to remember that these categorizations have no standard and are entirely the result of psychological inertia.
Type Eight
Type Eight’s self-boundaries are primarily directed towards the external world, opposing the environment, and their focus of attention is outward; as a result, Type Eight’s vitality expands outward and is injected into the external world. Type Eight individuals constantly emit energy, preventing anything from approaching or harming them. They live as if saying, “In my world, nothing can gain the upper hand, and no one can break through my defenses to hurt me. I must always be on guard.” The more severely a Type Eight was hurt in childhood, the thicker their self-boundaries become, making it harder for others to break through.
Type One
Type One also sets self-boundaries against the external world, but they are more concerned with internal boundaries. Everyone has aspects of themselves that they don’t believe in or identify with, which makes us anxious and feel the need to guard against. Type One spends a great deal of energy trying to prevent certain unconscious impulses from entering consciousness. Type One individuals seem to be telling themselves, “I don’t want to feel that way! I don’t want that reaction or that impulse!” They maintain internal boundaries by creating physical tension, attempting to keep their inner nature unrestricted.
Type Nine
Type Nine is the central type of the Body Triad (located at the top of the equilateral triangle), attempting to set self-boundaries both internally and externally. Type Nine individuals do not want certain emotions or states to disrupt the balance of their inner domain. Like Type One, they build an emotional wall, suppressing strong instincts and emotions; at the same time, like Type Eight, they set strong self-boundaries against the external world to protect themselves from harm. They often exhibit passive-aggressive behavior, ignoring things that threaten their personal peace. It’s no wonder that Type Nine individuals say they are tired, as they expend enormous energy maintaining these two boundaries, naturally finding it difficult to fully engage in life and live in the present moment.
All three of these types, regardless of which one, have issues with aggression. (In fact, all nine personality types have different ways of aggression, but aggressive energy is the main key to the instinctual self-structure.) This aggression has direction, sometimes towards oneself, sometimes towards others. In psychology or spiritual work, this aggressive energy often comes from a strong sense of anger, which is an instinctive angry reaction when there is a need to suppress the self (control and limit self-vitality). Type Eight tends to express anger, Type Nine tends to deny anger, and Type One tends to suppress anger.
About the Triad
Regardless of which type we belong to, each personality type contains three basic elements: instinct, emotion, and thought, which are intertwined; we cannot change one element without affecting the other two. However, most people tend to be trapped in the world of personality, unable to see the basic elements within themselves, let alone the fact that modern education does not teach us about these aspects.
Each part of the triad represents a blocked or distorted innate ability or function. The emergence of personality is meant to fill the gap created by the blocked nature, and the triad to which our personality type belongs indicates where the blocked nature and the artificial compensatory mechanism of personality play the greatest role. For example, if we are Type Eight, the blocked essence is power. Therefore, personality traits intervene, attempting to defend the self through tough appearances or even inappropriate ways, imitating true power; trying to replace it with false power in personality, separating us from real power. Only by seeing this clearly can we recognize or reclaim the true power in our nature.
Similarly, each personality type imitates to the maximum extent in a way that the individual identifies with, attempting to replace the true nature traits. Paradoxically, if someone’s personality type is in the Feeling Triad, it doesn’t mean they have richer emotions than others; likewise, if someone’s personality type is in the Thinking Triad, it doesn’t mean they are smarter than others. In fact, the “self” is formed around the problematic element (instinct, emotion, or thought), and therefore is also the part that is psychologically most difficult to operate freely.
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