Three brains, three personalities
We mentioned earlier that our brain is one and triune, that is, it is three in one and one in three, like the Russian Matryoshka dolls. The reptilian or instinctive brain is the most ancient, and common to all vertebrates; overlaying this is our second brain which developed with the evolution of reptiles to mammals. The mammalian, limbic or emotional brain is common to all mammals and primates prior to humans in the evolution of species.
Finally, in the passage from mammals to primates, and from primates to human beings, the largest and bulkiest neocortex, the rational brain, formed around the limbic brain. It is present only in humans and in some higher primates, although not as developed and complex as in human.
In the process of acquiring information, the three brains function harmoniously together. We capture reality with our perceptions and our five senses through our reptilian brain, because it is responsible for the proper functioning of the whole organism.
What we perceive through our five senses evokes emotions long before it evokes thoughts. The first interpretive reading of what we perceive of reality is given to us by our limbic or emotional brain, that is, what we see, hear, smell, touch or taste first evokes emotions or feelings and only then thoughts, memories or experiences.
After this first interpretation by our limbic brain, it is the neocortex’s turn to give its opinion and process the information, comparing it with past experiences, taking a position about the topic at hand, and then deciding whether or not to act.
The coordination and harmony that exist in data collection and their interpretation by the three brains do not seem to exist when it comes to applying the received information to the surrounding world and to others. The ideal would be for a person to react instinctively when the situation requires an instinctive reaction as when there is the perception of danger, emotionally when the situation requires an emotional response as when becoming aware of someone needing our help and giving aid in the process, and rationally as when there is a problem to solve.
In reality, this is not what happens. Instead, we act emotionally when faced with a rational problem, rationally and distant when compassion should be shown, and instinctively and impulsively, as if we were in great danger, when we should be using reason and thinking before speaking or acting.
Because of education and certain innate tendencies, some people are more prone to always use the same part of the brain to the detriment of the other two. Using genetic language as a comparison, in the day to day behaviour one brain is dominant, the other is recessive, and the third is almost non-existent. In other words, one is primary, the other is secondary, and the third is neglected, and poorly or barely used.
Cerebral people
These are people whose personality is governed predominantly by reason. In leading their lives mainly through the process of reasoning, they neglect their emotions and instincts, that is, they are not really in touch with themselves. They live in a world of ideas and concepts as if they were inside Plato’s Cave. They are afraid of emotions and do not trust their instincts as they consider them to be intangible and irrational; to them, what is not clear rationally, does not exist.
The predominance of rational intelligence makes cerebral people focus on observation and analysis, and they need to think long before making decisions. Many of them are introverts (having difficulty speaking and expressing their feelings) and they prefer to interact more with the world of ideas than with people. They feel unable to cope with unpredictable situations and are very slow in their reactions, appearing to be apathetic, amorphous and distant.
Due to all this, and because they live in their head and are dissociated or divorced from both their limbic and reptilian brains, they are non-intuitive people disconnected from their inner and outer reality. Intellectuals and scientists are great analysts and specialists in different branches of science and knowledge because their preferred source of knowledge is the logical-deductive one.
Like the instinctive people, the rational ones are also very observant. Unlike the former who prefer to observe people, the rational people like to observe nature and facts instead. They like to understand how things function, to know the rationale behind the facts, and to know and understand how and why things happen, that is, the reason for things.
For this reason they are good at just about anything that strikes their interest. They are organized, methodical, determined and intelligent as they work on any subject that captures their interest.
It is to the cerebral experts that this saying applies, “they know more and more about less and less”. Lost in the detail that they analyze to satiety, they lose sight of the whole picture, so they are not eclectic, and may even be arrogant, intolerant and overbearing.
They are lucid, congruent, clairvoyant and logical; they speak with eloquence and are quick thinkers; they like to debate and discuss, and are skillful politicians with great capacity to convince others to their causes. When a rational person can come to a final logical conclusion, he is rarely wrong because being right and logical is one of his principles.
Much like the instinctive people or may even be worse than them, the great weakness of the rational people is their low sociability. They have a natural tendency to be self-reliant, not to cultivate relationships with other people and to isolate themselves. They also focus more on the absorption and analysis of ideas than on action. For this very reason, they are eternally undecided, doubt everything and everyone, and this makes them indolent and inactive.
Le cœur a ses raisons que la raison ne connaît point – This statement by Pascal was made in the context of religion. Of the three personality types, those who find it hardest to be believers are precisely the rational or cerebral type because faith is more closely linked to the reality of life captured by the reptilian brain or by the heart or emotions of the limbic brain, and less tied to reason because it cannot be rational. I believe that the famous atheists and agnostics like Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Freud and Nietzsche, were cerebral and of the rational type.
Faith is for the ignorant – For the cerebrals, only what is captured by the five senses and discernible by reason exists. There is no reality beyond this. They can make materialistic and simplistic statements, such as that from a famous surgeon who claimed to have operated on all parts of the human body and never found the soul; or from the first Soviet cosmonaut, who on returning from his first space travel said he had not seen God there.
Faith is a reasonable gift, it cannot be rational because it is not a matter of science, nor can it be irrational or superstitious; it has to be reasonable, that is, plausible and humanly credible, and it has to make sense. The rationalists cannot understand that if God exist and is the Creator of everything and everyone, he is also the Creator of human brain and reason. Therefore, a created being can never fully know its Creator, just as a part can never understand the whole.
I cannot believe – This is another typical attitude of the cerebral people. As we know from psychology, when someone says “I cannot”, what he really means is “I don’t want to”. In other words, what he is really saying is that he doesn’t want to believe. Similarly, when a smoker tells us, “I can’t stop smoking”, we should ask him, “Is it impossible to stop smoking?” to which he will respond no, that it is possible to quit as others have done it. We can then retort, “Then don’t say that you can’t stop smoking, but rather you don’t want to stop”, because as the saying goes, “Where there is a will there is a way”.
The agnostic or atheist does not want to come down from their high tower of reason, which he understands as the only means to attain knowledge. Since he denies spirituality in all its forms, he has the tendency to be materialistic and even to idolize some material realities. Deep down, more than being materialistic or atheistic, he ends up being a polytheist.
Because of fear and pride in regards to the emotional and instinctive world, rational people are left out of many realities of life. They may be rational, but they are not reasonable. The intellectuals can become dull, boring, monochromatic and depressed. The instinctive and emotional life can be the cause of great sadness and risk, but it is also the only vehicle for joy and happiness.
Emotional people
Emotional people function from the limbic brain and consider themselves more human than the cerebrals whom they disparagingly label as intellectuals, cold and distant, and the instinctive whom they consider subhuman and cruel. The emotional ones proudly think that they are the only ones who are authentically human, only they are able to truly feel, and that no one understands them.
To live is to love, they rightly say, and whoever doesn’t love doesn’t know what life is about or who God is, for even God is love. While a rational person would ask why do I live, an emotional person would find it more important to answer the question of for whom do I live.
People in whom emotional intelligence predominates are more focused on the relationships they establish with other people, making these the center of their lives. Therefore, when conflicts arise in this area, nothing is more important than the resolution of these conflicts. Emotional people tend to worry about their self-image because they want other people’s approval, avoid criticism and show others that they are special.
In Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication, we learned that emotions can be either positive or negative and that they are intimately connected to needs that are met when they are positive, and to needs not met when they are negative. We also learned that it is not possible to have the same feeling for more than 40 seconds at a time; with these two information from nonviolent communication at hand, we can conclude that the emotional character is the least stable of the three, they live on a moving roller coaster of ups and downs that can result in manic depression, one moment euphoric, and the next depressed.
On the other hand, it is true that human life has its ups and downs. In fact, both an electrocardiogram and an electroencephalogram indicate that a person is alive by graphically showing lines with ups and downs. If either imaging begins to show less highs and lows, this indicates that life is fading away; and a flat line, without oscillations, signals that life is no more. This is how it is of the physical life, and somehow, this is also the way of the emotional life. However, if the emotional part does not achieve a certain constancy and self-control, the life of the person and those close to him will become hell.
Constancy is the soulful middle ground between the ups and downs, and will allow the emotional person not to lose his head when he is euphoric, when everything seems to be going well, and not to despair when he is at rock bottom, when everything seems to be going wrong. Emotional people must learn soulfully, and not only intellectually, what the proverb says, “There is no evil that lasts for ever, nor good that never ends” -- life can be a heaven or a hell, but neither is here to stay permanently, they are only temporary “guests”.
Sentimental people need the intellect to master their emotions and not be controlled by them. Emotions say more about us, about our identity, than thoughts, but they should not govern our lives. Nobody is responsible for what they feel, we do not own our emotions, but we are responsible for what we do with them. They show us the path to follow, but it is we and our intellect that decide whether or not to take that path.
Purely emotional decisions often mislead the person. We should not decide on anything under the influence of such a strong emotion as love, rage, resentment, and it is advisable to wait until the storm passes. In this emotional state, the person’s reason is nullified, like a drunken person he doesn’t know what he is doing or what he is saying, he is basically out of his mind.
But when he came to himself... (Luke 15:11-32) – The parable of the prodigal son alludes precisely to this situation of making rash decisions under the influence of some passion. Everything that the prodigal son did, from asking his father for the inheritance to wasting it all away, was done unconsciously under the control of one or more strong emotions. When he came to his senses, he became aware of his situation.
Emotions define us better than our thoughts. They are therefore what is most authentic in us. However, although this may seem contradictory, emotions can also divorce us from ourselves, cause us to be out of our mind, abandoning our identity when we are under their control.
Emotional people are highly sensitive people. According to studies, one in five persons, or between 15 to 20 percent of the population, are sensitive or emotional people. Although in the Western world it is culturally considered that women are more emotional than men, in reality this does not seem to be the case. There are equal numbers of emotional men and emotional women, despite the difference in their upbringing.
Emotional people are empathetic people, because they understand their inner world well, and because they are highly sensitive. They easily put themselves in the other’s shoes, and can see and feel things from their point of view. Empathy is one of the most important qualities of human beings, without it there would be no possibility of understanding between humans.
They are certainly more intuitive than the cerebrals, because their center – the limbic brain – communicates with the reptilian brain, anatomically it is directly on top of it. Phylogenetically, emotion is closer to instinct than to thought. Their intuition is used for social relations more than for scientific or material discoveries. In emotional people, intuition is at the service of empathy, for peering at and being in tune with the other. Because of this connatural attunement, emotional people are very humane and well-mannered.
Being highly sensitivity doesn’t always work in their favor, however. In fact, they are also sensitive to criticism, and have little capacity to withstand it and continue to function. For example, the instinctive have the attitude of “the dogs bark and the caravan passes”, in other words, they do not care what others might think of them. The sensitive people, as they want to be popular, to associate and relate to everyone, seek the appreciation of others and cannot tolerate their criticism. This leads them to use techniques to minimize their chances of being criticized, thus making them less genuine and even selective in their social relationships, avoiding the company of those who might criticize them.
They are intense people who live their passions with vigor. This is why they are more susceptible to anxiety and depression, as we have already mentioned. On the other hand, of the three personality types, they are the ones who work best in teams because, in discussions or dialogues, they prefer to lose the argument than to lose the person. They are the most sociable and the most altruistic.
Visceral or instinctive people
People who are predominantly visceral tend to be impulsive because their attention is always turned outwardly on resolving everything. The visceral person is always in a state of alertness to be able to control everything and everyone around him.
The vital energy of the visceral people is anger or rage, which can appear in speech or attitude, even in people who do not openly express their anger as they may have adopted a technique to contain it or may even be unaware of it, but it is there.
They seek power and are very critical of those who hold it in matters of justice and truth, or even in regards to their ability to hold onto the power they have. In this sense, they are skillful at coup d'état or in pulling the rug from under the feet of those who hold power unjustly or undeservedly. At all times, they deal with situations as if they were a matter of survival, of life and death.
As there is a correlation between the reptilian brain and the instinctive personality, it is not hard to conclude that the instinctive people are action people. The reptilian brain does not think or feel, it has only three functions: fight, flight or freeze/hide. Therefore, instinctive people place more importance on action than on feeling and thinking.
The viscera, the gut, or the instinct are the primary motive of their personality, and as human as they are, they need the other two brains. Oddly enough, the instinctive brain tends to bypass the limbic brain to communicate with the neocortex so to humanly justify and enlighten its action, therefore marginalizing emotions and feelings.
The instinctive need the neocortex, but they don’t waste much time with it like the cerebrals who go round and round a question and, consumed by doubts, never come to a decision. The instinctive think, process the problem, quickly reach a conclusion and take action; often, the solution comes through intuition, which is their strongest weapon.
Intuition, the weapon of visceral or instinctive people
Intuition is the process of coming to knowledge and certainty of something quickly, without the slow deliberation of thinking that operates in the logical-deductive way. It is difficult to define precisely because it is not a conclusion drawn at the end of an intellectual process.
Mathematics is a logical-deductive science, just like all other sciences for which knowledge results from observation, experimentation and interpretation of results. However, many of today’s scientific discoveries have not followed this process. The steam engine was an intuition, as well as Einstein’s theory of relativity, for which empirical evidence of its veracity is only now beginning to emerge.
It is likely that intuition is also a logical-deductive thought, but although it follows a process, it occurs quickly at a subconscious level. The conscious mind only grasps the solution of the problem, without realizing the steps taken to get there. It may still come from the observation, experimentation and interpretation of the observer, and if it is, this process is done unconsciously.
It is similar to when we observe someone’s body language and our subconscious mind interprets and deciphers that body language, and we quickly come to a conclusion about that person. Since body language is always true, precisely because the person who emits it is unaware of it, intuition is almost always right.
The instinctive are good observers and no detail escapes them. All details are seen, judged and evaluated even unconsciously, eventually motivating the intuitions. They observe the body language, the tone of voice, the words that others choose to express themselves – everything is thoroughly observed and evaluated.
Intuition is based on the belief that the universe, in all its aspects and manifestations, operates by obeying the same rules and laws. The laws of physics are observed both in the material world as well as in the psychological or spiritual world. The movement of a planet around its star mimics the movement of an electron around the nucleus of an atom, and the movement of the planets in the solar system around the sun seems to trace the spiral of the DNA, our genetic code.
Metaphors, comparisons, allegories, parables, and analogies, they all work and are possible because deep down there is a correlation between all things so that what happens in one matter or theme can help us to understand what is happening in another matter or theme, apparently unrelated to the first.
Intuitive people have brains that work in metaphors; the most important person to walk on this planet, Jesus of Nazareth, possessed a metaphorical mind and easily came up with parables, allegories and comparisons to explain abstract realities like the Kingdom of God. He explained the necessity of his death by saying, “… unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)
The instinctive or visceral people instead of operating from the neocortex, taking into account the other two brains, somehow subvert human nature or ignore evolution and operate from their reptilian brain, using or “manipulating” the other two, especially the neocortex to which the reptilian brain connects directly and uses it as a database for intuitions.
For the instinctive people, the cerebrals live on the moon while the emotional are the cry-babies of this world, only they themselves are pragmatic and functional because they have both of their feet firmly planted on the ground and they make things happen. The value of a man is in his works; a person is not measured by what he feels, says or thinks, but by what he does; as the saying goes, “Hell is full of good intentions”. Furthermore, Jesus said that by their fruits they will be known (Matthew 7: 15-20).
Since action is all the instinctive people value, they tend to be impatient and impulsive, therefore inclined to put the cart before the horse and, as many of their deeds are neither premeditated nor deliberate, they often make mistake.
The instinctive are people of action, their minds are full of projects and works that they want to see accomplished. That is why they avoid social relationships, since they arouse feelings and emotions, which for them is like quicksand they cannot control and can distract them from their tasks. We say that the instinctive know the love of power, but not the power of love.
People who are in touch with their instincts tend to be introvert, they need silence and solitude to be touch with themselves. Contrary to what people think, an introvert is not an antisocial person, just as an extrovert is not an altruistically social person.
The extrovert needs others to be himself, while the introvert does not depend on others: he can enjoy the company of others, but quickly tires and needs to return to his solitude, because it is where he regains his vital and mental energy and can connect with himself.
Of the three personalities, the instinctive or visceral get angry the most and are easily irritated, but they are also the first to forgive or to ask for forgiveness, the first to turn the page and move on. They repeat to themselves and to others that “passed waters do not move mills”. The instinctive avoid holding grudges and resentments, or staying angry, sad or depressed, since this takes away the energy they need for their intuition to work.
The three personality types and the Enneagram
The Enneagram is a psychological theory that uses and develops the most this division of human personality into three types, which arise from the fact that we have three brains that are related to the three basic functions of the human psyche: instinct, feeling and thought.
In the Enneagram, we understand that there are 3 centers of intelligence: 1. the visceral, which is responsible for our impulses and instincts managed by the reptilian brain, is located in the abdomen or gut, 2. the emotional, which is responsible for what we feel and how we interpret our emotions managed by the limbic brain, is located in the chest, and finally 3. the cerebral, which is responsible for reasoning, cognition and memory controlled by the neocortex, is located in the head.
We call them the 3 intelligence centers because they are the ways we understand and interact with the world around us. Although we all have the three centers, each person throughout his/her development specializes in one of them and has the tendency to want to deal with life situations using only one of these dimensions.
Why do we limit ourselves to only one dimension? It is our personal history that makes us incline more towards one dimension than another. Let us see how the three functions of the human psyche – instinct, feeling and thought – are related to the three basic needs of every human being: autonomy, recognition and safety. The extent to which these basic needs are met or unmet will influence our personality to be more cerebral, emotional or visceral.
If the fulfillment of one of these needs was problematic and conflictive or traumatic, the child develops the personality or the corresponding antidote or pattern, as an emergency measure to solve the problem and thus reinforcing one or the other intelligence center.
Autonomy – The vital emotion of the visceral is anger in response to the fact that his need for autonomy has not been met. Every human being seeks freedom and independence, in this sense we are all territorial beings as we defend our identity, establishing boundaries between self and other.
Recognition – The vital emotion or feeling of the emotional is shame because the need for recognition has not been met. To be loved and wanted is very important to a child, as in the sense of belonging to a family.
Safety – The vital emotion of the cerebral is fear and anxiety in response to the fact that his need for security has not been met. This means feeling safe where we are, knowing the place well, knowing the truth of things, and feeling clear and confident.
The child who reacted angrily to the difficulty of fulfilling his or her need for autonomy grew up as a visceral person; the child who reacted shamefully to the lack of recognition developed an emotional character; finally, the child who was afraid when faced with the lack of safety grew up as a cerebral.
The Enneagram identifies three different personalities within each intelligence center, this makes a total of 9 personalities (3x3). Due to the lack of space, we will not describe each of the nine personalities that the Enneagram identifies with numbers from 1 to 9 and will put the numbers of each triad in parentheses.
Emotional triad (2, 3, 4)
Emotional people perceive the world through the cognitive filter of emotional intelligence. They are aware of their own moods and feelings, and those of others so that they can retain their sense of connection with them. They are the most dependent on others, so much so that they would adjust themselves to suit others to get their approval. In this sense, they are more concerned with appearance than with who they really are.
Of course, what underlies and motivates this behaviour is the feeling of shame, which makes them feel as if there is always something very deep and hidden in them that makes them feel unworthy or wrong. This emotion or feeling of something is missing in them may be unconscious and hidden under pride or arrogance and contempt.
Because of the pretense and hypocrisy in maintaining an appearance that makes them popular, they end up with identity crises. At some point they no longer know if it is they or the mask they wear to obtain approval from others. In a certain sense, it seems they never grow up, because their self-esteem is always dependent on the esteem they receive or not receive from others.
Evidently, it is not only the types from the emotional center but also all other types depend on emotional intelligence to develop their higher qualities from the emotional center such as compassion, kindness, understanding and empathy.
Cerebral triad (5, 6, 7)
The cerebral or rational people perceive the world and their environment through the cognitive filter of mental faculties. The objectives of this strategy are to minimize anxiety or fear of dealing with potentially painful situations and to acquire a sense of certainty through the mental process of analysis, conception, imagination and planning.
They are clairvoyant, think clearly and may even develop complex theories. Problems arise when it comes to execution. It is as if they are always preparing for action, but that moment never comes, like a motor that fails to start. They are always in doubt which is in itself a manifestation of the fear of making mistakes.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”. They would say like Descartes, “Cogito ergo sum”, confusing their essence with only the content of their minds; but this equates to confusing the map with the territory.
Evidently, it is not only the types from the mental center but all other types depend on mental intelligence to develop higher qualities of the mental center such as wisdom, understanding and prudence.
Visceral triad (8, 9, 1)
Visceral people tend to perceive the world through the instinct and intelligence of the physical and synesthetic sensations. They use their position and power to transform the world into how they think it should be.
Centered and focused more on their bodies and action than on their feelings or thoughts, their main emotion or vital energy is anger, which they use as a defense mechanism. This anger which is clear and evident in the 8’s may be repressed in the 1’s and unconscious in the 9’s, but it is real and always present in this personality triad.
They are outwardly action driven, very active and charismatic, hardworking and skillful perceivers of reality of others, but are disconnected from themselves, unaware of their inner selves, their feelings and thoughts, their being and identity.
Evidently, not only the types from the instinctive center but all other types depend on somatic intelligence to access the necessary energy for action, to discern how much force must be applied to different situations and to acquire the solid sensation of being connected to this world.
In summary:
Rational
|
Emotional
|
Visceral
|
|
Body
|
Head
|
Chest
|
Abdomen (Gut)
|
Brain
|
Neocortex
|
Mammalian
|
Reptilian
|
Facing reality
|
Observe/think
|
Relates
|
Act/control
|
Feel
|
Insecure/anxious
|
Ashamed
|
Angered
|
Seek
|
To understand
|
To be accepted
|
Autonomy
|
Under stress
|
Worries
|
Cries
|
Shouts
|
Goal
|
Wisdom
|
Love
|
Courage
|
How can I develop the other intelligences?
One suggestion for developing the other weaker intelligence centers is to live with people in whom these centers are predominant.
To develop a certain intelligence center there are specific strategies. In order to develop the rational intelligence, we must avoid quick reaction, in other words, stop, take a deep breath, give time, count to 10, practice meditation, and ask ourselves why or what did he say, that is, observe and try to interpret.
To develop the emotional intelligence, it is enough to always ask ourselves (before acting or responding to something) how we feel; we must be able to identify the emotion that we currently feel; on the other hand, try to identify the other person’s feelings and especially ask how we would feel if the other person were to say or do with us what we want to say or do with them?
To develop the visceral intelligence, we should pay more attention to the sensations generated by our body, exercise, practice martial arts (as these help us to connect with the vital energy of the visceral, anger or rage); the practice of dynamic meditations also helps.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
