What is human instinct - 7 examples of human instincts

These are natural instincts, but people know how to control them.
The instinct of self-preservation arises especially clearly in extreme situations. It is believed that the main instinct is self-preservation, since it does not allow one to behave destructively or take risks. It goes hand in hand with fear. Fear is an instinct that manifests itself even in infants when they worry about losing contact with their mother.

Reproduction, parent

Sexual instinct
is one of the strongest, the most basic. Initially, it is perceived as a way to satisfy physiological needs. But at a higher level, it manifests itself as a manifestation of strong feelings between representatives of the opposite sex.

Love is an instinct that is aimed at subsequent procreation. But not all modern people strive for procreation, but this does not apply to intuitive behavior.

Important!

It is the instinct to reproduce that allows people and animals to maintain populations.
If the chain is broken, it leads to the extinction of the species. Parental instinct
is a set of reactions belonging to the same group. In females, it is manifested by caring for the offspring.

Maternal instinct

This is a controversial phenomenon as some women do not experience it. But in some animal species it also spreads to the offspring of other species. For example, there are cases where a duck raised chickens or a cougar fed kittens.

Hunting

This instinct is a form of behavior in men, which was especially pronounced in primitive times, when it was necessary to obtain food.
Now this is manifested by a love of fishing and hunting, but not everyone has it.

Domination and power

This instinct is behavior caused by the need for leadership and power.
People with pronounced dominance lead the crowd, organize and manage. Every group has a leader, even if it is not obvious.

Nothing suppresses the feeling of freedom more than the herd instinct. Mikhail Mikhailovich Mamchich

Social

Human social instincts are a series of behavioral reactions that ensure socialization.
First of all, people manifest altruism, expressed in caring for others, kindness, and a desire for peace. Social instinct is a feature that is not expressed in everyone.

Freedom and independence

This instinct leads to independence.
It occurs in infants who do not allow themselves to be fed or swaddled. With age, a person learns to adapt the desire for freedom to common interests.

Religion

Religious instinct
is a person’s desire to believe in a Higher Power. It does not appear in everyone.

Human instincts are a set of feelings and behavioral reactions. People must be able or manage in order to be fully accomplished as individuals.

Psychologically unstable character: should you be afraid?

Reflexes

Reflex is a mechanism for realizing instinct. In essence, instinct is a complex of unconditioned reflexes. A person is given 15 reflexes at birth. They are divided into three groups: oral, motor, grasping. Most of them die off during the first year of a child's life.

Other reflexes – conditioned, acquired as a result of learning – become vitally important. We look around when crossing the road, not because of the instinct of self-preservation, but because we have been taught. We pull our hand away from the hot kettle because we once got burned.

And the mind also comes into play. People understand that it is not advisable to give birth every year. And in general, many people prefer career and personal growth. The social part suppresses instincts.

Of the unconditional instincts, the most influential instinct remains only the “herd” instinct. The human crowd is susceptible to a number of mechanisms, including infection and imitation. A sense of community or herdism can turn a group into a chaotic crowd and deprive a person of individuality.

Personality as a result of learning

Gamers have only one instinct - the autosave instinct.

Knowing that you are controlled by your own mind and are not a shellfish is important, first of all, for analyzing your own life.

You can no longer say the following phrases:

• I was born this way!
• I have such a character!
• That's the kind of person I am!

Because everything that you are now is the result of the work of your mind.

Moreover, you cannot even complain that you were not taught something. Yes, they didn’t teach you as a child, but now no one is stopping you from learning.

Therefore, if something doesn’t work out for you, then the answer is simple - learn how to do it.

• If you don't have enough money, learn how to make money.
• If you don't have friends, learn to make friends.
• If you don't have happiness, learn to be happy.

In all these cases, the best assistant is your mind.

A mollusk may complain about life, but you cannot. After all, you can change it!

Differences from animals

The most basic difference is that a person is able to control or suppress his needs, especially in those moments when they contradict the law or rules of behavior. With various mental disorders, a person loses the ability to control, which manifests itself, for example, in excessive consumption of food, that is, overeating, or, conversely, refusal of it in case of anorexia, promiscuity, any type of addiction, etc. In such cases, a person becomes like an animal whose main instincts are preservation and procreation.

Animals do not know how to suppress their reflexes, they have no concept of morality, therefore a cat or dog during the period of heat is not selective in choosing a partner; on the contrary, the more of them there are, the higher the probability of having offspring.

Predators kill without feeling pity, just to get enough and feed their young; this, by the way, sometimes doesn’t really distinguish us from animals. Unfortunately, many people are capable of murder for their own gain. And in some ways, animals turn out to be more “humane”, in those cases when they show unspeakable fidelity, creating only one pair in their entire lives, and sometimes they are even ready to die if they lose a partner, or spend the rest of their days alone.

Human instincts

Man is a complex creature, which can be explained by the example of the transformation and complication of instincts over the course of his life. A person is born with biological needs that are dictated by instincts - automatic actions aimed at satisfying the needs of the body. However, a person lives in a society where there are its own rules, norms, traditions and other aspects. He is exposed to education, training, influence, which allows instincts to fade into the background.

Instincts do not disappear and do not disappear. Sometimes a person even learns to stop them and control them. As one gains experience and shapes one's life, a person's instincts transform. If you notice a person behaving inappropriately in a stressful situation, it means that he has not yet developed a mechanism that would restrain his instinctive behavior. However, there are individuals who have already learned to remain calm in situations that threaten them with death or require fertilization (sexual intercourse).

Thus, human instincts do not disappear anywhere, but they begin to obey certain fears, worldviews, conditioned reflexes and even social norms when an individual learns to get involved in the process in time to slow down his instinctive actions and quickly transfer them to other actions.

Instincts are given to absolutely all people and remain for life. They cannot be called either good or bad. Instincts help a person, first of all, to survive, otherwise his birth and existence become meaningless. On the other hand, instinctive actions are often considered unacceptable in a society where its own laws and frameworks of behavior have been developed. Therefore, a person must learn to control his instinctive impulses and transfer energy to perform actions acceptable by society.

This is what distinguishes humans from animals - conscious control, when instincts exist and continue to help a person survive. However, the individual is able to control himself and not obey instinctive energy if it is inappropriate in a particular case.

Acquired Instincts

Acquired instinct is the habits that each person develops in accordance with his innate inclinations.
These are not hereditary traits. Such an instinct is an unconditioned reflex that is activated when a person needs to perform a certain action. Unconditional instinct

- These are reactions aimed at increasing safety and survival in extreme conditions. They can be not only positive, but also negative.

Positive

is a mixture of good instincts to increase the survival rate and safety of society. These include decency, friendliness, and conscientiousness.

Negative instinct

These are acquired qualities in psychology, such as meanness, cynicism, deception. They are formed in groups of people with an increased level of the leading component.

What it is

Until now, this concept is interpreted differently by various scientific movements, and in relation to humans it is so complicated that it is impossible to understand without certain preparation.

One of the first relatively precise definitions of instincts was given by William James.

He defined instinct as the ability to act in such a way as to achieve certain goals without prior training and analysis of the situation.

A simple example: a spider weaves a web. It does this thanks to its innate instinct for obtaining food, and this insect is not at all concerned with the mathematical relationship between the length and shape of individual patterns, but this relationship is clearly present.

And this ability is only for a spider. Let's say a person, with all his intelligence and education, is able to weave something similar after lengthy calculations and tests.

Hegel even called instinct unconscious thinking, this is partly true, but here many disagree, placing instincts closer to reflexes, and not to the ability to think.

Thus, instinctivity is, most often, behavior, the meaning and characteristics of which are already inherent in nature and should not be comprehended.

And instinct is a set of innate tendencies and aspirations that are expressed in the form of automatic behavior.

Suppression of instincts

As you can already understand from the example of your own life, we are best able to give free rein to the instinct of self-preservation. The release of instinctive needs of a sexual nature brings much more problems, but the instinct for power remains completely unsatisfied.

Why is that? Our upbringing is to blame. Education is determined by the cultural values ​​of a particular society. Most often, culture is aimed at suppressing the instinct of power, then at the sexual instinct, and the instinct of self-preservation is of no particular interest to anyone. Society is interested in you staying alive, but not interested in you being your full self.

All this happens because the stability of society will be shaken in this way. The system itself also has an instinct for self-preservation, therefore it strives to reproduce people who are easily integrated into the general and are unable to in any way upset the established balance. This power has its own price - human individuality. People who strive to realize themselves in all three directions of their instincts elevate themselves above the already existing system, thereby threatening its stable foundation. The rare individuals who succeed in this are the elite, capable of influencing the development of society. And it is not profitable for the elite to produce competitors. This is where what we have comes from - the elite raises successors, but will never allow outsiders in.

A person from an average family in the modern structure of society is a priori an unfree person. Basic instincts are constantly suppressed. If the sexual instinct at least sometimes finds a way out, the instinct of power is cut off at the root. Such people are easy to manage and are incapable of making independent decisions. They need a leader, a master who will always show the way and sort out everyday vanity. Parents who suppress the basic instincts of their child through radical measures in education risk raising him into an incurable neurotic.

Classification of instincts and its practical application.

A. Protopopov offers his scientific classification of human instincts. We can highlight the most significant human instincts for life and consider them in detail: 1. 2. Territorial instinct. 3. Orienting instinct. 4. Reproduction instinct 5. Parental instinct. 6. Hierarchical instinct 7. 8. Self-preservation instinct 9. Freedom instinct 10. Altruistic instinct

In addition to instincts, modern technologies can instill in a person viral artificial behavior that is harmful to him and works against instinctive programs, a kind of information diseases. Separately in human behavior it is necessary to highlight information diseases - viral programs of life that distinguish him from other species of animals. Different people have different innate strength of instincts, some have a predominant hierarchical instinct and strive for power, some have a strong orienting instinct and he chooses science, someone has a developed instinct for freedom, and he constantly travels…. All human instincts work together, and priorities change over time.

By humans, it is also based on innate behavioral programs; ethologist V.R. Dolnik began to describe these programs in detail. can be analyzed from an ethological point of view.

Human behavior is complex, but the list of instincts given is sufficient and necessary for understanding 90% of human behavior.

What are instincts

Instincts are understood as automatic, conditioned actions that are given to all people from birth and do not require their conscious control. Basically, instincts are aimed at the survival of the individual and the preservation of their species. Thus, a person instinctively begins to look for food or water when he is hungry or thirsty, runs away from danger or enters into battle when he is in danger, and has sexual relations with the opposite sex in order to obtain offspring.

However, psychologists point out that humans have many more instincts than the animal world. Human instincts are the desire for power, dominance, and communication. It should be noted that the most important instinct, which has many forms of manifestation, is the desire to maintain balance. The so-called homeostasis - when a person wants to experience peace and tranquility - is one of the basic aspirations.

Instinct is not a goal, as some people might think. The fact that a person consciously desires and wants to achieve something is not an instinct. Here a person simply arranges his life, which can exist anyway if he does nothing.

It is necessary to distinguish instincts from internal fears, complexes, feelings that develop in a person as he lives. They are also called acquired or social fears. For example, the feeling of guilt is an acquired quality that affects a person at a subconscious level. However, no one is born with a feeling of guilt; it is developed in people as they grow and develop.

You should also highlight such common fears as:

1. Fear of not being recognized.
2. Fear of criticism.
3. Fear of loneliness, etc.

These are all social fears. They are more related to a person’s mental harmony than to his survival.

However, there are fears that to some extent can be attributed to instinctive. Thus, fear of sharks or spiders, fear of heights - these fears can be developed, but they are based on the instinct of self-survival, when a person must first of all take care of the safety of his health and life.

Are people completely devoid of instincts?

For a long time, scientists said that we have only one real instinct: when unexpectedly meeting a sympathetic person, representatives of different cultures raised their eyebrows for ⅙ seconds the same way. Moreover, children blind from birth did the same at the sound of a familiar and pleasant voice.

But in 2021, an article was published whose authors state that, apparently, the fear of spiders and snakes without a twinge of conscience can also be called instinctive. This was tested on innocent babies who had never encountered either animal: the children were shown a series of images (flowers and spiders, snakes and fish) similar in color and shape. And it turned out that when looking at “dangerous” pictures, the pupils dilated more strongly. This indicates the launch of the norepinephrine system, which is activated in response to a frightening stimulus.

Researchers have decided that fear of dangerous animals may be embedded in us at the genetic level.

It was more profitable for ancient man to be scared and immediately run away from a potentially poisonous animal. This knowledge somehow took root and, apparently, has survived to this day. So it’s no wonder that arachnophobia and ophiophobia (fear of spiders and snakes, respectively) are constantly included in the list of the most common fears of mankind.

Of course, sometimes you want to justify behavior by referring to the call of nature or attributing everything to biological heritage, but do not forget: for many thousands of years, man has been shaped by society; we have become what we are thanks to constant learning and thinking. All this helped us survive and begin to dominate the world. A person’s instincts have disappeared a long time ago, and even if it seems that this particular action is precisely dictated by nature, no, someone just has problems with self-control.

Types of instincts

There are many types of instincts:

1. The instinct of self-preservation is the most basic and initial. Every child begins to cry if there is no mother or the person who constantly takes care of him nearby. If a person’s instinct of self-preservation does not fade away over time under the influence of public education, then he becomes cautious and prudent. Gambling, risky people commit destructive acts when they jump with a parachute or climb into the cages of predatory animals. Depending on the degree of self-preservation instinct, a person will perform certain actions.
2. Continuation of the family. This instinct first manifests itself at the level of the desire for the parents’ family to remain intact and not be destroyed, and then the person himself begins to desire to create his own family and have children. This instinct also has different levels of manifestation. There are people who control their sexual desires and remain faithful to their only marriage partners, and there are people who are unwilling or unable to control sexual lust, so they take mistresses or do not create families at all in order to be able to copulate with a large number of members of the opposite sex .
3. Study. As the human body gets stronger, it begins to study the world around it. Curiosity becomes an instinct that is aimed at studying the world around him, the desire to understand it and begin to interact with it, which will also allow him to live harmoniously and preserve his life.
4. Dominance. A person experiences an internal need to have power, to lead other people, to control and manage. This instinct manifests itself in people to varying degrees.
5. Independence and freedom. These instincts are also innate, when every child resists any attempt to swaddle him, limit his actions or prohibit him. Adults also do everything to gain maximum freedom and independence in the world in which they are forced to live.
6. Adaptation. This instinct can be combined with the instinct of research, since a person first studies the world around him, and then begins to adapt to it in order to develop such skills and form such knowledge that will help him effectively survive in the existing conditions.
7. Communicative. A person can be alone, but he gravitates more towards a herd existence, when he can communicate, conduct joint business and solve problems at the expense of others.

Are we more complex than spiders?

Primates and especially humans went even further in development and finally lost the remnants of instincts. Our behavior is very complex, but our mind is more flexible, so we do not need a clear program, and we can choose the easiest and most suitable solution from several solutions. Thanks should be given to the highly developed frontal lobe of the brain, where the centers for controlling behavior and acquiring skills are located. Thanks to it, we can satisfy our needs as the situation requires, and not follow straight lines laid by distant ancestors.

Opponents object: without instincts, all people would have died out long ago - take, for example, the ability of babies to cry loudly and for a long time or sneeze because of the fluff in the nose! However, this is just a reflex - a very simple (or slightly complicated) signal from the body to irritation. In general, the diagram looks like this: receptor - neurons - performer (for example, muscle). A receptor on the hand, or in the eye, or on the surface of the skin detects some kind of irritation, but we cannot do anything about it. But our sensitive neurons urgently transmit signals to the spinal cord, where simple but effective solutions are already “ripening”: jumping away from the flame or crying, washing a speck out of the eye.. Everything is simple and fast, the question is the answer. People have a lot of reflexes: some we are already born with (newborns have a lot of them, but as they grow older, many of them fade away), others we acquire in the process of learning and gaining experience.

So if you hear about someone’s unprecedentedly developed “self-preservation instinct,” know that, most likely, this person’s reflex arc simply works perfectly, and people do not have such an “instinct.”

More precisely, not a single animal in the world has it. “Instinct of self-preservation” is a collective image of many actions that representatives of fauna perform to survive. This includes the ability for long seasonal flights in birds, and the reflexive withdrawal of a hand from a hot object.

Maternal instinct is a fiction

People (and representatives of our group in general) do not have a maternal instinct. Of course, even during gestation and after the birth of the baby, the body of each female individual undergoes strong changes. A gradual increase in the level of hormones, from human chorionic gonadotropin at first to prolactin in the end, can directly or indirectly affect the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, changing behavior: the animal becomes more stress-resistant, trust in others increases, the desire to create a “nest” and take care of someone becomes more intense. or. However, this is not a mandatory program, so the listed sensations in pregnant women may manifest themselves with varying strengths or be absent altogether.

How birds find their way south

Speaking of birds. Twice a year, migratory birds accomplish something truly grandiose, if not impossible, and it is not only about overcoming vast distances, but also about choosing the direction of migration. They use many sources of information: the position of the sun and stars, some landmarks, and the planet’s magnetic field.

It seems that this is true instinct: having never been to a wintering place, the bird feels the need to fly exactly there. But in fact, young individuals do not immediately understand where they need to go, and only over time they comprehend the all-wise science of navigation. However, how this happens still remains a mystery. In some species, youngsters simply follow their flock, studying the route, while in others, apparently, the ability to choose the right direction is genetic (if you cross birds with different types of migration, the offspring may get lost).

So instinct is instinct, but it still needs to be learned. But the need to migrate clearly manifests itself instinctively: when the length of daylight changes, physiological changes are triggered in the birds’ bodies, which prompt them to prepare for migration, and then to fly.

Structure of instinctive behavior

Scientist W. Craig once suggested that the behavior of an animal depends not only on certain stimuli, but also on the internal needs of the body.

On this basis, he identified 3 components of instinctive behavior :

• attraction, desire for a certain action,
• search,
• final action.

He classified instinct as an innate ability to perform certain actions, and designated instinctive behavior as a process that occurs not only with the use of instincts, but also with adaptation to specific conditions of existence and with life experience.

For example, the ability to navigate in space in animals (and in humans too) is genetically based, but the stereotype of certain movements of this orientation is formed gradually. This requires the appropriate skills.

What is this

A long time ago, in Ancient Greece, thinkers and simply smart men noticed that it is human nature to react and behave in the same way in unsafe conditions. The instincts themselves are in the hemocode, and they consist of reflexes, which in turn are:

• Conditional -
  that is, those that a person acquired during his life. The simplest example is when you turn on the light as soon as you enter the room. You were not born with this knowledge and habit, but acquired it as you grew older. And now you don’t even notice how your hand reaches for the switch.
• Unconditional,
  respectively, those that we received at birth. It’s rare that someone doesn’t withdraw their hand after touching a hot frying pan or iron, right? This is an unconditioned reflex.

Instincts can be influenced by religion, law, norms and rules of behavior, education or lack thereof. For example, in a family where parents abuse overprotection, controlling every step of the child, then what kind of independence can we talk about? He won’t really understand in which situations he should be careful, and in which, on the contrary, he should show up.

Such stories most often have two versions of events.

First: a child, growing up, remains to live with his parents, since in order to create a family, you need at least a little independence and the ability to rely on yourself.

Second: he tries in every possible way to escape, becomes uncontrollable and aggressive towards those who care for him. The stories of the second option usually end more successfully.

To make it clearer how instincts can be influenced, let’s first look at what they are.

Do humans have them?

They exist, scientists do not argue with this, only some call them innate motor abilities, although this is not entirely accurate.

Reflexes can also be innate, but they differ from instincts .

Reflex is the reaction of a living creature to an external stimulus.

They come in two types:

• unconditional ones are inherent from birth: we almost unconsciously pull back our hand when touching something hot or when exposed to electric current, stretch our arms in the direction of the fall, etc.
• conditioned ones are acquired during life (everyone here, of course, will remember the experiments of Academician Pavlov), they also develop in people, for example, when entering a dark room, we reflexively reach for the switch and turn on the lighting.

Human instincts are characteristics of his species and differ from the instincts of animals.

For example, we can take, say, the instinct of procreation . In all creatures with male and female individuals, the mating season begins with the male's desire to attract a female or vice versa.

In animals this process is simpler. Let's say a black grouse performs a certain dance on a lek, which tells the female that he, figuratively speaking, wants to get to know her. The nightingale does the same, performing a certain calling trill.

Both the dance and the singing of the bird in these cases never change; this is an unchanging ritual .

Do maternal and paternal instincts exist?

Many scientists puzzled over the concept of instinct, and a huge amount of scientific work was carried out. The famous scientist Garbuzov structured the types of this gift of nature. He defined the basic instincts, but they did not include the concepts of maternal and paternal instinct. This result of his work was criticized by some, supported by others. It is generally accepted that these concepts are considered conditioned instincts, since they do not manifest themselves in everyone. Also, caring for one’s offspring can be interpreted as an instinct for self-preservation or procreation.

forms. This

A slightly different phenomenon (and not always associated with the birth of a baby) is considered paternal instinct. This is considered a more socially determined phenomenon, which is associated with the norms of modern society, focusing on family values.

The instinct of self-preservation

The first, simplest and most controversial is the instinct of self-preservation. A living person always strives for safety. Any situation that seems threatening will cause fear. For example, you can use a car that suddenly brakes in front of you. Also, many people try, if possible, not to take shortcuts through dark alleys, where any unclear silhouette seems like a potential robber.

This instinct is familiar and understandable to every person, although it is not as simple as it seems at first glance. There is an opinion that a person achieves maximum security when he has already achieved power and continued his lineage. Therefore, the instinct of self-preservation can be considered leading, but it should be remembered that this is just an interesting theory.

The human life program is the implementation of instincts and the balance of life. Calculation.

The human life program consists of a dozen life subprograms that implement human instincts. Their implementation may depend on a clear understanding of these programs. The scheme for digitizing human life is quite simple. Accounting can be carried out both in economic indicators and in time expenditure.

Human consumption of resources on instincts

1. Food instinct -> Nutrition program -> Habits: buying food, dishes and cutlery, food preparations, detergents...

2. Territorial instinct —> Personal Territory Program —> Habits: all expenses related to housing, furniture, equipment, repairs, rent, cottage,..

3. Orienting instinct—>Searching and creating information—>Habits: telephone, TV, radio, Internet, printed materials, disks, computer, theaters...

4. Reproduction instinct -> Reproduction program -> Habits: search for marriage partners, cosmetics and perfumes, fitness and bodybuilding, plastic surgery...

5.Parental instinct -> Parental program -> Habits: all expenses for children: food, treatment, education,...

6. Hierarchical instinct -> Social rank program -> Habits: clothes and shoes, education, clubs, parties, self-promotion, luxury, events..

7. Instinct of aggression -> Program of aggression -> Habits: sports shows, boxing hunting, collecting weapons, fishing, rallies, demonstrations, political associations...

8. Instinct of self-preservation —> Self-preservation program —> Habits: security system, healthy lifestyle training, medical services, medications, physical education, dietary supplements

9. Instinct of freedom -> Freedom program -> Habits: all travel expenses, car, migration, emigration, work abroad, tourism. 10. Viral programs of life -> Habits: alcohol, tobacco, overeating, gambling, computer games,…

A more detailed example of calculation is given in the article Life Balance.

The entire pattern of human behavior and performance results constitutes a small database with an objective analysis of the course of life.

Life Course Database

Types of instincts

The following types of instincts are considered:

1. Reproductive: parental and sexual.
2. Social: related, conformal, vertical and horizontal consolidation, kleptomania, unrelated isolation.
3. Adaptation to the environment: territorial, search and gathering, constructive, migration, limiting the number of species, veterinary and agricultural, landscape preferences, hunting and fishing.
4. Communicative: gestures and facial expressions, non-verbal, linguistic.

Instincts are embedded in every individual. They can manifest themselves both independently and in interaction with other people. In turn, they are aimed exclusively at satisfying physiological needs. That is, instincts are short-term in the period of their manifestation (as soon as a person has satisfied his desires, the instinct to perform the desired action disappears).

The first group includes the instincts of reproduction and the manifestation of parental qualities. A person needs not only to impregnate a woman so that she can have a child, but also to support and help the child during the period of his helplessness (otherwise he would die). The absence of these instincts would have already destroyed humanity, since people would not reproduce and would not take care of their own offspring.

The second group includes social instincts that encourage each person to unite with other people. The absence of this incentive would lead to the death of the individual, who would not be able to cope with the entire burden of the environment. By uniting in groups, a person instinctively agrees to some suppression of himself, subordination, and adherence to hierarchy. In such a situation, it is very easy to manipulate those who seek to preserve the group.

A person first of all strives to preserve his genome. Therefore, he unites into families. At the same time, there is aggression and competition with those who are not family members. A person fights to preserve the purity of his gene.

In addition, the individual always strives to unite with another person. Cooperation is where no one is subordinate to anyone. However, people unite because it is much easier to complete a task or solve a problem together than individually.

By uniting, people create:

• Vertical consolidation - when an individual agrees to obey and infringe on his freedom in order to be part of a group. The team has a leader and obeys clear rules that cannot be destroyed.
• Horizontal consolidation is when people unite of their own free will on the basis of altruism. A person will do something good for the sake of another individual in order to subsequently receive some kind of benefit or help from him. We are not talking about selfless altruism here.

When in contact with his opponents, a person exhibits kleptomania - he deceives, robs, and steals. This is considered quite normal from the biological side, when a person takes care of himself and his loved ones, brings them what he could take from others.

Instincts to adapt to the environment are irrelevant today. However, in the old days, a person always sought to find a place where it would be convenient for him to survive and satisfy his needs.

When uniting with people, a person is forced to look for ways to communicate with them. Verbal and non-verbal signs are used here. If previously they were primitive, then over time society created its own language that helps people understand each other. This makes them civilized people, although from birth a person does not know his language.

Three instincts: life, power, sex

My beast is not affectionate and not gentle

We are used to thinking that we are intelligent beings, but this is a great exaggeration[2]. Scientific experiments prove that we are only outwardly reasonable, but in fact we are not guided by sound reasoning and conscious attitudes, but by our subconscious, where fears and needs that are crude in reality reign. Our consciousness is at most 50 or 70 thousand years old, and our subcortex is millions, and the degree of its influence on our behavior is enormous!

Our subconscious was forced to “go underground”, and the consciousness, which seems to have reigned, in fact does not control the situation. Our behavior is based on animal instincts, but our consciousness pretends that we have long since left the “Stone Age”. We, of course, left, but, in essence, we did not change anything. We are still animals, only with a very complex computer, which, however, we also have not learned to use. We do not know how to operate our consciousness for our own needs; we serve our endless fears and concerns with it. “The Monkey and the Glasses” - this fable is just about us sinners!

Consciousness is a wonderful thing, but if it plays the role of a puppet, what good is it? Unfortunately, in this capacity it only aggravates our plight.

Well, everything is just like in the song: “It seems they are not slackers and could live,” but! Fears appear in the subconscious naturally, because the instinct of self-preservation, which guards our lives, continues to fight for survival. But we don't have to fight for survival! If there is anything we need to fight for, it is for the quality of life. But what kind of quality of life can there be if we have equipped our anxious subconscious with all the strength and power of our consciousness, which contains thousands of reasons for anxiety and fear and is capable of making a molehill out of a molehill in no time?!

Yes, there is a beast living inside us, a wild beast not distinguished by intellectual merits, its name is the subconscious. The principles he follows, the problems he solves, are primitive and at the same time masterfully twisted. And our consciousness depends on the subconscious, which, as you understand, does not do it any honor or give it real status. Our psyche arose and was formed to implement simple biological tasks - the survival of an individual, group, species. We have to adapt to a world that is no longer natural, but social, the laws of which are similar to natural ones, exactly the opposite.

The conflict that arises between the purpose of our mental apparatus and the need to live “culturally” leads to all this disgrace. Designed for banal physical survival, our psychological apparatus resolves issues of “humanitarian policy” and “social responsibility”! Of course, the “costs” arising from such a substitution must be “paid” by us out of our own pockets. So we pay with our mental well-being. Meanwhile, this wild animal - the subconscious, inherited from our distant ancestors, sits intimidated somewhere deep inside us and creates psycho-emotional tension. It is he who, with an ultimatum, guides our consciousness and causes reactions that can only be called insane.

As a result, we have no choice but to suffer from neuroses, or at least from a state of general neuroticism. Not knowing how to use our own enormous powers to our advantage, we use them to our detriment.

We should “take Mondays and oh, because on our “island there is no calendar.” However, there is a calendar! Thank God, science is already able to provide us with everything we need to correct the current state of affairs. But who knows about this?! This is the problem, and the following narrative is offered for those who want to know.

Nature demands payment of debts

Now let's talk about “highest justice”. In this life you have to pay for everything. How many crocodiles do you think survive to adulthood out of hundreds of small, barely born crocodiles? No more than three. And how many human cubs out of a hundred survive to reach sexual maturity? At least 93! Is there a noticeable difference? I think that's quite enough. It seems that strong and powerful animals have a much better chance of surviving than we do, however...

The human brain is designed, to put it mildly, painfully. We manage to live in endless discord with ourselves, suffer from a variety of negative experiences, experience various heartaches and mental anguish. We worry about little things, we constantly miss the main thing; we are in a state of constant, chronic internal tension, on the one hand, and total, irreparable dissatisfaction, on the other. All this is so obvious that it’s even funny to say, and it would be absolutely funny to try to disagree with this statement.

Unfortunately, all this is natural. With the help of a wide variety of means, we were able to secure our lives, but as a result of the action of these same means, we turned our lives into incessant and meaningless torment. We paid for life with quality of life.

However, despite all the logic of the prevailing pattern here, I, for my part, do not think that it is necessary to pay off debts to Mother Nature in exactly this way and in exactly this quantity. It seems to me that it is better to work on our mental apparatus and bring it to a state in which these senseless mental torments would leave us forever. Our labor will be reliable and sufficient payment. But living for the sake of suffering is both an excessive payment and unnecessary for anyone. So that we all learn the optimal way to make the necessary payments, I write my books.

Human instincts

Every person has instincts. They are the basic and first driving forces that contribute to survival. However, over time, a person suppresses them by learning socially acceptable behavior, which becomes a habit. Even in such a situation, instincts do not disappear or be forgotten. Sometimes you can notice how people behave inappropriately in specific situations. What does this mean?

Instincts do not disappear anywhere, they are simply suppressed by conditioned reflexes or conscious, volitional activity. If the blocking system does not work in a particular situation, then the person begins to behave instinctively. He does not become crazy, but simply acts automatically, where the only goal is protection or survival.

As development progresses, instinctive manifestations may change. However, they always remain in a person. The basic instincts are:

1. Self-preservation.
2. Power.
3. Reproduction.

If a person is subject to his instincts, then he is easy to control.

The peculiarity of instincts is that they can suppress each other. Let's take the example of sexual infidelity, when a man takes the risk of sleeping with a woman, not being sure that her husband will not find them. The instinct of reproduction suppresses the instinct of self-preservation, but they can then switch if a husband appears (the person will stop having sex and begin to protect himself).

Human behavior under the influence of instincts can be very different from the actions that he does consciously. Automatic actions are rude, primitive, thoughtless, which can be negatively perceived by society.

Instincts are important biological reflexes that are inherent in humans. They help in his survival. The rest depends on how a person wants to live. Then he begins to develop certain skills and habits. Instincts do not need to be learned, they are already in a person. However, the progression of society affected how people continued to use their innate actions.

The need for socialization forces people to abandon their instinctive behavior and develop other skills. To some extent this affects human health. Without using his natural stimuli, a person stops using his physiological potential. This leads to decreased vision, hearing, the appearance of muscle weakness, the development of various diseases in the form of atrophy of individual cells, etc.

On the other hand, a person cannot live at the level of instincts, because then he will be completely rejected by society. He needs to learn to walk, talk, read and perform other actions in order to be adapted to the conditions that society has come up with.

Sexual instinct or desire?

As we've discovered, instinct is often confused with desires and needs - especially when it comes to sexual desire. It would seem so easy to give in to the call of nature, hiding behind the great goal of reproduction, and leave your genes everywhere. And yet, “basic instinct” is nothing more than a person’s simple desire to receive pleasure (after all, almost every one of us first discovers masturbation, and only then sex with a partner).

If the need for intercourse was truly instinctive, then all people on Earth would do it in exactly the same way and, moreover, there would be a single signal of readiness on both sides (perhaps life would become easier).

Mammals are once again paying the price for big brains - and they even have to learn sex. Animals raised in captivity often do not perceive “signs of attention” from potential partners, and their attempts at physical intimacy are regarded as aggression and violence. Different-sex macaques raised outside the pack will most likely begin to groom each other (the classic program is mutual grooming and cuddling), but are unlikely to understand how and why to have sex. And if they do understand, then the female will face the next test - the birth of a baby and the high probability of its early death, because mammals have no instincts.

Biological and social in man

In relation to humans, it is customary to speak not about instincts, but about species memory. It can be genetic, passed on from generation to generation, and cultural - the heritage of society.

If some instincts are present, for example, aggression, sexuality, then society suppresses them. Thus, monogamy is the result of socialization, the cultivation of the individual.

Animal instincts in a person are activated when primary biological needs are unsatisfied: food, safety, sleep, shelter, sex. Of course, consciousness, learned norms, values, and culture begin to fight instincts.

According to the theory of William McDougall, a person retains several instincts:

• running away when afraid;
• disgust, rejection;
• anger, often with fear;
• embarrassment;
• inspiration;
• parental;
• food;
• gregarious.

Why then, for example, does not the maternal instinct arise in all women? Psychotherapists claim that feeding a child and communicating with him in the first day after birth triggers the maternal instinct. If the contact happened later, then the instinct will not manifest itself. It is likely that other instincts also manifest themselves under certain conditions.

In other theories, the classification of human instincts is supplemented by the following types:

• procreation;
• altruism;
• dominance;
• study;
• Liberty.

In my opinion, a person has three main instincts.

Kinds

1. The most basic and basic thing is self-preservation

If for some reason it is not weakened, then your behavior will not be risky, gambling and destructive. For example, you will not climb into a cage with tigers, you will not jump without a parachute and provoke a group of athletes. Even at birth, a child unconsciously reaches out to his mother, experiencing great anxiety if he is left alone, because his life depends on others. That is why babies begin to smile so early, rejoicing at the approach of someone who cares, so that the desire to be picked up and approached to the crib more often does not fade away.

3.Altruism

The first two reflexes were the main ones that help a person survive. Now let's move on to more social ones, ensuring socialization and successful activities. And the first will be altruism, which is expressed in caring for others, both people and animals, this is compassion and empathy, the desire for peace and goodness. When it is strongly expressed, a person is able to devote his life to caring for those who need it, but not just devote it, but make a sacrifice, for example, by going to a monastery.

4.Research

Aimed at developing a person, both creatively and in other areas. Thanks to curiosity, young children learn about the world, and depending on the environment in which they grow up, their abilities and aspirations develop. Examples of successful research activities for which they were not punished, but encouraged, are great scientists, travelers, famous creative personalities and other people following their interest.

5.Dominance

This is the need for leadership and power. People who have a pronounced dominance are able to lead a crowd, organize and manage. Have you noticed that even in the company of small children there is always a “ringleader”? No group can do without a leader, even an indirect one. It often happens that a person who has previously had no leadership experience, finding himself in a company in which power has not yet been distributed, takes the honorable place of leader

And it doesn’t matter in what way, either he wins the championship himself, or is chosen by the other participants

6. Maintaining your dignity

Only in an exaggerated form people sometimes ignore their innate instincts. For example, they are ready to risk their health and life in order to defend their honor or rightness. When the level is very weak, then a person has low self-esteem, as a result of which he allows not only humiliation towards himself, but also violence. There are often cases when a self-confident woman begins a relationship with a tyrant who constantly devalues ​​her, bringing her to such a state that she really stops believing in her strength, intelligence and attractiveness. He becomes a victim who is now easy to manipulate and control, because he will endure everything.

7.Freedom and independence

It appears in infancy, when trying to swaddle a newborn, during normal development. During rebellion in adolescence, if it is not suppressed. Thanks to the need for freedom, a person develops social skills, increases the likelihood of success, creating a family and, in general, a high-quality independent life. A person is able to bear responsibility and rely on himself, as he has experience.

Instincts. And why do people not have them?

In the process of progressive evolution of the individuality of an animal among vertebrates, this matrix “thinns” and “destroys”, being replaced by acts of individual intelligence (for example, concepts of situations ), learning results and other elements of experience. The manifestation of instincts “goes into the shadows” and is increasingly limited to uncertain and non-specific situations.

Further, an “instinctive matrix” of patterns of species-specific behavior has been described in studies of the neural substrate of vocalizations of lower apes, but has not been found in anthropoids. By stimulating different parts of the brain of Saimiri squirrel monkeys using implanted electrodes, U. Jurgens and D. Plooge showed that each of the eight types of Saimiri sounds, identified by structural characteristics of the spectrum, has its own morphological substrate in the vocal areas of the brain. If the substrates coincided and two different types of sounds could be evoked from one point, they were evoked by different modes of electrical stimulation (in terms of intensity, frequency and duration of the stimulus, cited by Jurgens, 1979, 1988).

Similar results were obtained in other species of lower apes. The differentiation of alarm signals at the level of behavior corresponds to the differentiation of the neural substrate that mediates the issuance of a signal in response to signals from a partner and/or dangerous situations (these are areas of the limbic system, which includes the vocal zones of the diencephalon and forebrain). With a common morphological substrate, different signals are “triggered” by different modes of stimulation, that is, each species-specific signal corresponds to “its own” site and/or triggering mode of influence (Fitch, Hauser, 1995; Ghazanfar, Hauser, 1999).

On the one hand, all this exactly corresponds to the “release” of instincts after specific “injections” of key stimuli, as classical ethologists understood it. On the other hand, it proves the discreteness and differentiation of species signals in lower apes and other vertebrates that have signaling systems of the same type (Evans, 2002; Egnor et al., 2004). Thirdly, it confirms the presence of a biological basis for the traditional typological classification of animal signals, based on reducing the entire variety of changes in the structural-temporal spectrum of sounds produced in a given situation to a certain finite set of “ideal samples” (Current topics in primate vocal communication, 1995).

That is, in lower monkeys we see a strict “ triple correspondence ” between a signal, a situation and a pattern of behavior launched in response to a signal, with species-specific patterns, “automaticity” of triggering, innate “meaning” of situations by signals and innate response of other individuals to the signal. Physiological studies show that signals have isolated “patterns of output” in the brain, ethological studies of the same types show that there are isolated “patterns of perception and response” of different signals associated with different situations and differentiated on the basis of different signal shapes .

Alarm systems for all other vertebrates (rodents, lizards, birds and fish) are also organized. But in the phylogenetic series of primates, this “triple correspondence” weakens and is completely eliminated in anthropoids. Already in baboons and macaques, the accuracy of the correspondence between differentiated signals, morphological substrates from which the signal is evoked, and differentiated stimulation modes or classes of external objects responsible for the appearance of the signal is impaired (Current topics in primate vocal communication, 1995; Ghazanfar, Hauser, 1999).

Accordingly, many visual and acoustic demonstrations are non-specific, and are de-specialized to the level of individual pantomime. These entirely nonspecific signals are nevertheless quite effective in communicative terms, for example, the so-called “food cry” of Ceylon macaques ().

Having discovered a new type of food or a rich source of food, monkeys emit a characteristic cry lasting about 0.5 s (frequency ranges from 2.5 to 4.5 kHz). The emotional basis of the cry is general excitement, a kind of euphoria, stimulated by the discovery of new sources or types of food, where the level of excitement (reflected in the corresponding parameters of the cry) grows in proportion to the degree of novelty and “delicacy” of the food.

Evidence of the nonspecificity of the signal is the fact that individual differences in the reactivity of macaques significantly affect the intensity of sound activity and the frequency characteristics of the sounds themselves. In addition, the characteristics of the signal do not depend on the specific characteristics of food objects, that is, the macaque food signal is devoid of iconic meaning.

However, the food cry is an effective and reliable means of communication. In an adequate situation, a cry was recorded in 154 cases out of 169. A positive reaction of other individuals to a cry was found in 135 cases out of 154; members of the herd who hear the cry run towards it from a distance of up to 100 m (Dittus, 1984).

During the transition to higher primates, more and more signals become nonspecific, their form is determined by individual expression, which is influenced by the state and situation, with the complete lack of expression of “ideal samples” and, therefore, invariants of the signal form. The reaction is determined by an individual assessment of the situation, and not by “automatisms” at the species level; differentiated species signaling systems “such as vervet monkeys” are transformed into pantomime of individuals (ad hoc signals), which each animal emits to the extent of its own arousal and its specific assessment of the situation, and others interpret in the measure of one's own observation and understanding.

That is, in the phylogenetic series of primates, there is a despecialization of species signals: from a specialized “language” using symbolic signals, they turn into an individual pantomime, capable of conveying a mood, but not informing about a class of situations. This process has been recorded for both vocalizations and visual signals (facial expressions, gestures, postural demonstrations). It reaches its logical conclusion in the anthropoids. Their behavioral repertoire completely lacks elements of behavior corresponding to the “demonstrations” of classical ethologists.

Their place is taken by vocalizations, gestures, body movements and facial expressions, purely individual in nature, the synchronization and unification of which is achieved through mutual “copying” of the way of performing the “necessary” screams or gestures in the “right situation”. Thus, long-distance food calls of chimpanzees are purely individual, with some dependence also on the situation and the novelty of food (which is reminiscent of the food cry of M. sinica). However, when producing a cry together, male chimpanzees begin to imitate the acoustic characteristics of their partner's cry. This achieves a certain unification of calls, the more complete and stable the more often these animals cry together about similar types of food (that is, the closer the social connection between them, the more often they cooperate in searching for food in similar ways, etc.).

Since the nature of the cry and the degree of its unification with other individuals is a marker of the closeness of social interaction between animals, different males cry differently depending on with whom exactly. This leads, on the one hand, to a significant diversity of cries, on the other hand, to a unification that marks existing social alliances, but can be flexibly rearranged with any transformation of the group structure. Thus, individuals are informed about all significant restructuring of the structure of social connections (Mittani, Brandt, 1994).

As observations show, other individuals are well oriented to the structure of calls and the nature of gesticulations of individuals, using them as a marker of changes in the animal’s social connections with individuals from the immediate environment (strength, closeness, stability of connections, dominant or subordinate position, Goodall, 1992). Orangutans do the same thing. To resume interrupted communication: they accurately reproduce the partner’s signals if they “understand” its meaning and the situation in connection with which it was issued, but modify it if the meaning of the corresponding gestures and cries is incomprehensible (unknown), or ignorance of the circumstances in which it was reproduced (Leaves, 2007).

That is, an ethological observer, among the sounds or expressions of anthropoids, can always identify elements that in a certain period of time would be both “formalized” and “endowed with meaning” for all members of the group.

But these elements are not constant, their “endowment” changes purely situationally and dynamically throughout the life of the group, that is, “by themselves” they are “formless” and “semantically empty” (ad hoc signals). Although the plastic behavior of an animal (including vocalization) always breaks down into a certain number of relatively isolated elements, reminiscent of demonstrations, upon any long observation it turns out to be a kind of tabula rasa, on which the dynamics of the social structure of the group imprints this or that “structure of behavior” with a signal meaning ad hoc and quickly modifies them.

Apparently, the mirror neuron systems of great apes, which are currently being intensively studied, are developing as a replacement for the differentiated signaling systems of great apes. They make it possible to assign a signal value to any social action of an animal, a measure of its “typicality” and “typicality” of the circumstances in which it manifests itself, to bring the reproduced action to the level of a stereotype, indistinguishable in rigidity and form from a “real demonstration”, if the situation is unchanged, and to change the stereotype, if it changes. See Michael Arbib. Mirror system hypothesis.

Therefore, the second line of evidence for the absence of instincts in great apes is associated with the failure to find “vervet monkey-type” signaling systems. The latter are based on specific sets of differentiated demonstrations, “denoting” logically alternative categories of objects of the external world and thus, as it were, “naming” them. In addition to them, the same signal “denotes differentiated” behavioral programs that are launched upon interaction with a given external object and/or after receiving a signal about it (Seyfarth et al., 1980; Cheeney, Seyfarth, 1990; Blumstein, 2002; Egnor et al. ., 2004).

Thus, the meaning of the signals here seems to combine name and action, which allows us to call these signaling systems a “language”, given the purely “instinctiveness” of the signals and the “automaticity” of the start of the signaling process. Naturally, they tried to discover such a “language” among anthropoids, because it is so tempting to consider these simple, but already “sign” signals as the forerunners of human language! There have even been suggestions that both types of chimpanzees have a gestural or “acoustic” proto-language (built on the same principle as that of vervet monkeys, but unlike them, it is an open system of signs, with the possibility of creating new signs for a new situation by combining some basic elements, Mitani, Brandt, 1994).

With this hope, signal-symbol systems were actively sought in the acoustic and gestural communication of chimpanzees and bonobos. But all attempts to describe “something similar to vervet monkeys” were unsuccessful both in terms of vocalizations and gestures.

It is significant that in situations of danger and anxiety (as well as aggression, sexual arousal, and in all other situations), anthropoids are unable to inform their partners exactly what danger is threatening, where exactly it comes from, and what should be done in this situation . Their gestures and cries reflect only the degree of anxiety in connection with the situation, they can arouse a similar emotional state in others, force them to pay attention to the situation and, in the presence of relationships that involve social support, encourage them to provide it.

Thus, in groups of chimpanzees, cannibals periodically appear, stealing and eating the young of other monkeys. Sometimes these attempts are successful, sometimes mothers repel them, mobilizing support in the form of friendly males. One of these females was attacked by a cannibal several times and successfully repelled them due to social support. However, the nature of the attack target’s signaling shows that its intense signaling and gestures do not in any way inform the “support group” about what kind of danger is threatening and how best to repel it; it only conveys a state of anxiety and stress in connection with the situation. Arriving males are forced to evaluate the situation and choose actions themselves ( J. Goodall. Chimpanzees in nature. Behavior. M.: Mir, 1992 ).

In contrast, the simple signaling system of lower apes (3-4 differentiated calls instead of 18-30 vocalizations in chimpanzees, connected by continuum transitions) easily copes with the task of informing about alternative categories of dangers that are significant for their external world (Zuberbűhler et al., 1997; Zuberbűhler, 2000; Blumstein, 2002; Egnor et al., 2004). Apparently, precisely because it is impossible to accurately indicate the danger posed by cannibals, these chimpanzees calmly exist in groups and, outside of acts of attack on other cubs, are completely tolerated by other individuals. The latter fully recognize these subjects individually, but due to the absence of both species-specific instincts and a “protolanguage,” their actions remain “unnamed,” and, therefore, “unappreciated” by the collective.

That is, in the lower apes we see one state of stereotypical forms of behavior, one way of using ritualized demonstrations, exactly corresponding to the “classical” definition of instinct; in anthropoids and humans - another, directly opposite to the first. In fact, chimpanzees and bonobos (unlike vervet monkeys) do not have a specific “language” that solves the problem of “naming” significant situations and objects of the external world, and designating actions that are effective in a given situation. At the same time, in terms of the level of intelligence, ability to learn, to accurately reproduce someone else’s actions in a difficult situation (the same gestures of the “language of the deaf and dumb”), they are quite capable of learning language and using symbols. This has been proven many times by the famous experiments with “talking monkeys.”

Consequently, human language is not a species instinct of Homo sapiens, as Chomskyans believe (Pinker, 2004), but the same product of cultural evolution in communities of primates and ancestors, like tool activity. It has much in common with the latter, including the common neurological substrate of speaking, making tools according to a pattern, and throwing an object precisely at a target. But then even anthropoids (and especially humans) do not have patterns of behavior that correspond to the ethological definition of instinct.

The third line of evidence for the absence of instincts is associated with the radically different nature of facial expressions (possibly other elements of “body language”) of humans compared to the species-specific demonstrations of lower apes and other vertebrates, say, displays of courtship and threat. The latter represent a classic example of instinct, including because the accuracy of the correspondence between stimulus and reaction, the issued demonstration of the individual and the response demonstration of the partner is ensured automatically, due to the mechanism of stimulation of like by like.

The model of “stimulation of like by like” by M.E. Goltsman (1983a) arises from the need to explain the stability/direction of the flow of communication, its specific result in the form of social asymmetry, stable for a certain (predictable) period of time, as well as the differentiation of roles that stabilizes the system -society without any “too strong” statements about the presence of specialized sign systems. The well-known dialogue model of communication of classical ethologists is a variant of “stimulation of like by like” for the extreme case when the influences that individuals exchange with each other are specialized signals strictly associated with certain situations of the naturally developing process of interaction.

The nature of stimulation of like by like can be explained by the example of interactions between mother and child during the period of “baby babbling”, when there is definitely no sign communication (Vinarskaya, 1987). In the first months of a child’s life, some of the communication mechanisms are imprinted. Among them are those “which are a necessary prerequisite for any interaction”: quick and intent glances, approach movements, smiles, laughter, characteristic sounds of the voice. All these reactions are reinforced by the mother’s behavioral mechanisms, which turn on so unexpectedly and act so unconsciously for the mother herself that the author even makes a “potentiality error” by assuming their innateness.

This is a slowing down of the tone of the mother’s speech in response to the emotional manifestations of the child, an increase in the average frequency of the fundamental tone of the voice due to high frequencies, etc. If we were talking about the dialogue of adults, we could say that the mother translates the speech into the register “for a foreigner.” Actually, “stimulation of like by like” is as follows: “The more the physical characteristics of the mother’s emotional statements are similar to the infant’s vocal capabilities, the easier it is for him to imitate her and, consequently, to establish emotional social contact with her, which is characteristic of an early age. The more complete... the contact, the sooner the child’s innate sound reactions begin to acquire national specific features” (Vinarskaya, 1987: 21).

According to M.E. Goltsman (1983a), the main regulator of animal behavior in communities is based on two co-occurring processes: stimulation of behavior by similar behavior of a partner, or, conversely, blocking of this activity. First process : any behavioral act stimulates, i.e. initiates or strengthens exactly the same acts or complementary ones in all those who perceive it. The behavior of an animal has a self-stimulating effect on itself and a stimulating effect on its partners. This influence is carried out simultaneously at the entire set of possible levels of organization of animal behavior in communities. Although the main influence of each behavior parameter (the degree of ritualization of the form of acts, the intensity and expression of actions, the intensity of the rhythm of interactions) falls on the same parameter of behavior of the animal itself and its partners, it also extends to other forms of behavior that are physiologically and motorically related to this one. The second process is based on the opposite property: a behavioral act blocks the occurrence of similar acts in a social partner.

Therefore, the relationships between individuals of different ranks in a structured community are predominantly “competitive” in nature. The high frequency of presentation by dominant individuals of specific complexes of postures, movements and actions that make up the so-called “dominant syndrome” ensures a leading position in the group and at the same time creates a situation where the manifestation of identical forms of behavior in other members of the group is largely suppressed, so that they become into a subordinate position (Goltzman et al., 1977).

Further, the existence of a positive feedback is postulated, allowing both individuals to compare the parameters of their own activity with the parameters of the partner’s action and evaluate the “balance of forces” of opposing flows of stimulation created by the implementation of the behavior of one and the other individual (Goltsman, 1983a; Goltsman et al., 1994; Kruchenkova, 2002).

If the social activity of the partner is “weaker” than the activity of the individual itself, this stimulates the progressive development of the animal’s behavior towards the appearance of more and more expressive and specific elements that have a more intense and long-term impact on the partner. If the partner’s activity is “stronger” than the individual’s own activity, then it suppresses the manifestation of similar elements of behavior in the partner’s activity and “reverses” the development of the latter’s behavior in the direction opposite to the development of the behavior of the stronger partner (Goltsman et al., 1994; Kruchenkova, 2002). For example, in agonistic interactions, the defeated animal moves into submission postures, while the eventual winner continues to display threatening postures.

Further, every behavioral act stimulates in the perceiving individual exactly the same acts (initiating their appearance or enhancing the expression of existing ones) or complementary to them. Any implementation of a certain behavior, and especially ritualized demonstrations, specifically stimulates the partner and at the same time increases the sensitivity of the animal itself to the same type of stimulation from the outside, that is, a self-stimulating effect takes place. The processes of stimulation and self-stimulation turn out to be coupled: here these are two sides of the same coin.

In this case, for all instinctive reactions of the animal, a strong positive correlation is observed between the animal’s ability to perceive signals associated with the corresponding demonstrations and produce them itself.

In any population, there is polymorphism in the ability to encode outgoing signals (associated with the accuracy of reproduction of signal invariants in specific acts of animal demonstration, with the stereotypical performance of species-specific demonstrations), and in the ability to “decipher” the behavior of a partner, highlighting specific forms of signals against the background of a continuum of non-specific non-signal actions. In all species studied in this regard, the ability to produce stereotyped, easily recognizable output displays correlates with a greater ability to differentiate displays in the stream of actions of a partner at the input of the system-organism (Andersson, 1980; Pietz, 1985; Aubin, Joventine, 1997, 1998, 2002).

Human facial expressions, expressing different emotional states, are very similar to demonstrations of courtship and threat of lower apes: both are expressive reactions that have some species-specificity and are performed quite stereotypically. However, here there is no correlation between the ability to send and receive facial signals, and if there is, it is negative. For example, JTLanzetta and REKleck found that skilled facial senders were very inaccurate in decoding others' expressions, and vice versa. College students were filmed reacting to red and green lights, the former warning of electric shock.

The same group of students was then shown recordings of other participants' reactions and asked to determine when they were shown a red signal and when they were shown a green signal. Those subjects whose faces most accurately reflected the state they were experiencing were worse than others in identifying this state on the faces of other participants (Lanzetta, Kleck, 1970).

In animals, the execution of their own demonstrations is directly proportional to the sensitivity to similar stimulation of the partner and the ability to classify the opponent’s expressive reactions according to the presence/absence of the necessary demonstrations (to which the animal is ready to react). The positive correlation remains, even if the demonstration is reproduced with distortion, the performer is obscured by branches, foliage, etc., precisely due to the instinctive nature of the production and response of signals (Nuechterlein, Storer, 1982; Searby et al., 2004; Evans, Marler, 1995; Hauser , 1996; Peters and Evans, 2003a, b, 2007; Evans and Evans, 2007).

Therefore, the negative correlation in humans is associated with a non-instinctive socialization mechanism based on the communicative environment in the family and associated learning . In a highly expressive family environment, facial demonstration skills develop well, but since the highly emotional signals of all family members are extremely expressive and very accurate, decoding skills develop poorly due to lack of need. Conversely, in low-expressive families, the skills of expressive expression of emotional states are very poorly developed, but since the need for understanding objectively exists, learning is carried out to more accurately decipher weak signals (Izard, 1971, cited in Izard, 1980).

This assumption was fully confirmed when using the Family Expressiveness Questionnaire to assess the communication environment. The skill of encoding an emotional state in facial expressions correlates positively with the level of emotionality in relationships and emotional freedom in the family, while the skill of decoding correlates negatively (Halberstadt, 1983, 1986)

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And in conclusion - why are people now looking for instincts with the same zeal with which they used to look for an immortal soul? The goal is one - to reconcile with the injustice of the structure of the world, which lies in evil and, despite 1789 and 1917, is not going to get out of there; on the contrary, it is plunging deeper and deeper into evil.