Although skeptics have tried for many years to categorize instincts as a secondhand emotion, scientist have been busy studying instincts and through lab experiments and brain scans they have successfully proven that this trait does, in fact, exist. I describe instincts as our natural human intelligence and pose the question, why would humans be created without this survival instinct that even animals possess?
Martha Beck, PhD and graduate of Harvard University discusses in her book, Finding Your Own North Star, describes the "internal compass" (Beck, 2001 pg xv) which I interpret as one's natural human intelligence or instinctive drive. In an article titled "Wise Beyond Our Years," Bahram Akradi, who is the founder and CEO of Lifetime Fitness cleverly describes instincts as "the intelligence of raw survival fused with the more miraculous and mysterious drives of the human soul" (Akradi, 2010 pg. 87). Read More
Pinkola Estes,
Women Who Run with the Wolves, 1992
"All creatures must learn that there exist predators. Without this knowing, a woman will be unable to negotiate safely within her own forest without being devoured. To understand the predator is to become a mature animal that is not vulnerable out of naivete, inexperience, or foolishness."
Miranda J Houston,
The Psychology of Abusive/Predatory Relationships, 2012
"As we have evolved as human beings, creating culture and tradition and moved on to modern civilization we have also tampered with the soul of a woman. We have dampened her spirit and annulled her sexuality. We have deadened her senses, drowned her creativity and stolen her instincts. We have fed her fairy tales and rendered her helpless. In the final analysis of it all we have made her prey to the predator."
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