The Instinctual Drives and the Enneagram Quotes

“Buddhism has a mythological figure of the Preta, the “Hungry Ghost.” The traditional figure of the Hungry Ghost represents a deceased person for whom the circumstances of death left the spirit in a deeply deprived state. The images of the Hungry Ghost are of large, grotesque bellies with tiny necks that can’t take in nourishment or find satisfaction. The resonance of these mythological characters is akin to the kind of “ghosts” of our own past who provoke deep, emotionally charged cravings in us. Hungry Ghosts are these old object relational dynamics bound to unconscious instinct. They represent unresolved emotional content trying to work itself out in the present. Unless these hungry ghosts within us are paid adequate attention and made conscious, they will act out repetitively and unconsciously through our Instinctual Drives. Without presence, our lives become ruins full of Hungry Ghosts.”
― John Luckovich, The Instinctual Drives and the Enneagram

“When emotional associations of pain and deprivation are triggered by instinct, it is difficult to be present with and curious about them; usually, this is because at the age when any particular self-image took root, the sensations and emotions were overwhelming. When these associations arise in the present, we typically react as if they’re objectively true in the moment. The “volume” of our reactivity is too loud for us to listen to our inner life. Any slight incongruence in an instinctual domain can provoke a cascade of negative self-images from the past with their accompanying emotional content. As a result, most people spend their entire lives defending and supporting their ego as if they were fighting for their lives.”
― John Luckovich, The Instinctual Drives and the Enneagram

“Modern people often assume that they have overcome a major portion of their instinctual programming and have sublimated these drives for more creative and enlightened aims, but we risk a great hubris that masks a more complicated reality. Without a vibrant inner life—as impressive as our accomplishments, our intelligence, or our experiences may be—our consciousness, and therefore our identity, will be entirely based on and patterned by instinctual agendas. Beneath acquired personas and habitual self-images, the force of instinct is as strong as ever, and this lack of basic understanding creates enormous difficulty and suffering in ourselves and for others.”
― John Luckovich, The Instinctual Drives and the Enneagram

“The healthy Social Instinct is skillful in knowing what face to present to people and how to manage our interpersonal identities. This instinct helps us recognize that authenticity isn’t clinging to a consistent self-presentation, but rather understanding how to skillfully hold multiple facets of self without becoming lost in any of them.”
― John Luckovich, The Instinctual Drives and the Enneagram