Relation

Order to follow when writing descriptions:
1. Bodily association and meaning
2. Perception
3. Living question
4. Logic
5. Ego
6. Existential attitude
7. Domains
8. Psychic poison
9. Fixated points

Center of Emotions

The Relation Instinct derives from the circulatory system, and is responsible for how an individual interacts with other people. The social dimension is covered by a vast array of domains including how one is perceived, whether or not they are lovable, and what image they convey to others. This leads this ego to judge by emotions. Emotions are the measure of how well one does in their relationships, which produces a spectrum of judgment based on love or hate.

"Who am I with?"

This ego will constantly ask "Who am I with?" and expresses concern with how we are perceived and how we perceive others; it is a people-oriented ego. The instinctual basis of this ego is that humans cannot survive without other people. For example, human babies are altricial, meaning helpless without the care of a parent, and are naturally social creatures. To survive, man had to identify which creatures were his friends and which were his enemies.^[1] Thus, the living question "who am I with?" seeks to identify friend or foe, which produces the feelings of love and hate. These feelings support the rejection or acceptance of a friend or a foe.

Analogical Reasoning

Before Ichazo's revision, the relation instinct was assigned to analytical reasoning. This is because in order to relate to others one must understand them through analysis, deducing what the other person is, who they are, and their intentions.^[1] After the revision, Ichazo assigned analogical reasoning to this instinct. Analogical reasoning is the process of drawing comparisons between two similar or unrelated things and discovering new information based on this comparison. The world of metaphor and art belong to this corner, having at its base an emotional core. The relation instinct uses analogical reasoning to make inferences about the motivations, desires, and perceptions of other people. Thus the relation instinct answers "who am I with?" by making comparisons and metaphors, such as comparing oneself to others.^[3]

Image Ego

From the relation instinct comes the Image Ego. This ego is responsible for our relationships with friends, family, co-workers, and the organisations under whom we work. The main strategy of the image ego is to over-engineer their social relations by wearing a persona or falsified image, which they believe will elevate their social standing, offer certain privileges, deter a group that does not want to be associated with, or affirm a certain ethical identity. They are so preoccupied with how they are perceived that they will defend this image more than anything else.^[1]

Existential Attitude

The relation instinct is also called the "living group" because it is concerned with participating in life through connection with other people. Living does not simply refer to the fact of being alive, but it is meant to describe the activities of one's life; how they choose to use their existence. Fixation in this group is therefore felt as a lack of living, and a strategy is developed in order to find "the good life,"^[3] leading to the projection of an image of a higher moral person. This means that the problems of this instinct are primarily ethical.^[2]

The lower manifestation of this instinct's existential attitude is the horror of enslavement, because slavery fundamentally reduces the identity and humanity of the enslaved in the eyes of the slaver. An awareness of this in the lower manifestation turns into an existential anger which leads to anxiety. This does not refer to an anger that is outwardly expressed, but a deep anger at the awareness that there is something insufficient about one's relationships with others.^[2] To craft a lovable image that is capable of love and living with others, the image ego infers the motivations and desires of others. This becomes an anxiety because the image ego does not know whether or not they are loved or hated, and why they would or wouldn't be.^[3]

At higher levels this becomes a search for "the good life." The good life is based on higher moral principles which allow one to live harmoniously with others. By searching for these principles, the image ego can learn that they can live better with other people by being a better person authentically, rather than pretending to be a better person through a false image.^[2]

Domains

There are three areas where the relation instinct is threatened, which, when threatened, support the crystallization of a specific ego fixation:

1. Life and security (point 2)
2. Creativity (point 3)
3. Intellect (point 4)

Psychic Poison

This ego will become infected with the psychic poison of hatred, which may be interpreted as a sort of self-hatred for not being up to the standard of the perfect image. This poison then transforms into three separate poisons.

1. Envy: Ego-flattery/Over-independent (point 2)
2. Hatred: Ego-go/Over-efficient (point 3)
3. Jealousy: Ego-melancholy/Over-reasoner (point 4)

Fixated Points

References

1. Ichazo, O. (1976). The human process for enlightenment and freedom, The Arica School, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w6Zs6WYimJud29sl2kzjjO2k-v5x4rk0/view

2. Ichazo, O. (2023). The enneagrams of the divine forms perfect, eternal, unchanging truths (transcribed by American Pragmatist), The Arica School, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GzIWVuKR6rpLgznI8T8RfU-BkBWHWcufQZF4oBKUioE/edit?tab=t.0 

3. Ichazo, O. (2024). The enneagrams of the fixations: The original teachings, The Arica School, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Puteue12lR_8YWmNfpOFrhutLtnUbbZEvAPM5za2T10/edit?tab=t.0