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# Instinct
- URL: https://www.descentpress.com/index/instinct/
- Published: 2026-09-05T04:40:52.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-10T01:41:57.000Z
- Description: >
- Author: Jae Botávn
- Tags: #index

## 1\. Etymology

**Instinct** names an **involuntary drive toward certain activities**. Related: [archetypal-image](https://www.descentpress.com/index/archetypal-image/); psychization; physiological–mental poles.

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## 2\. Plain summary

All psychic processes whose energies are not under conscious control are instinctive. Instincts in original strength can make social [adaptation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/adaptation/) nearly impossible. Instinct is never isolated—it trails archetypal contents of a spiritual nature that both found and limit it; it stimulates thought, and if free thinking fails, compulsive thinking follows.

Conscious processes can become instinctive when charged with unconscious energy (fatigue, intoxication, [depression](https://www.descentpress.com/index/depression/)). Conversely, instincts can be civilized by psychization—too much invites revenge as an autonomous [complex](https://www.descentpress.com/index/complex/), a chief cause of neurosis. Too much animal distorts the civilized person; too much civilization makes sick animals.

Jung named five prominent instinctive groups: creativity, reflection, activity, sexuality, hunger—with creativity in a class by itself.

**Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common instinct motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):**  
involuntary drive; energies not under conscious control; social [adaptation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/adaptation/) risk; coupled with archetypal “philosophy”; compulsive thinking; psychization; too much → [complex](https://www.descentpress.com/index/complex/); animal vs civilization; five groups (hunger, sexuality, activity, reflection, creativity); Samuels → archetype / death / life instinct.

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## 3\. Academic elucidation

In analytical psychology instinct is **involuntary drive coupled with archetypal spirit**—Definitions and human-behaviour essays. Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels (redirect cluster) in §4\. Prefer CW 6 ¶765; CW 8 ¶¶161, 255; CW 16 ¶185.

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## 4\. Lexicon

**Sharp (1991)**

> Instinct. An involuntary drive toward certain activities. (See also archetype and archetypal image.) All psychic processes whose energies are not under conscious control are instinctive. … Instinct is always and inevitably coupled with something like a philosophy of life… An instinct which has undergone too much psychization can take its revenge in the form of an autonomous complex…

(Sharp, 1991) — cites CW 6 ¶765; CW 8 ¶¶161, 255; CW 16 ¶185; CW 7 ¶32 in Sharp’s lemma.

**Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986)** — *instinct* redirect p. **83** (house vessel neighborhood.

> instinct See ARCHETYPE; DEATH INSTINCT; LIFE INSTINCT; TRANSFORMATION.

(Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, p. **83**)

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## 5\. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive

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**See also:** [archetypal-image](https://www.descentpress.com/index/archetypal-image/); [libido](https://www.descentpress.com/index/libido/); [complex](https://www.descentpress.com/index/complex/); [adaptation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/adaptation/); [depression](https://www.descentpress.com/index/depression/); [eros](https://www.descentpress.com/index/eros/); [unconscious](https://www.descentpress.com/index/unconscious/).

## References

Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). *A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis*. Routledge.

Sharp, D. (1991). *Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts*. Inner City Books.

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