What are Instincts?

I would never trust my instincts as they have been wrong on so many occasions. I think that is partly down to being on the Autistic Spectrum. We don’t tend to read people very well, so now my ‘instinct’ is to be incredibly wary of anyone new. We used to be told when I was growing up that if you were nice to other people then they would be nice to you. That’s nonsense. If you are nice to other people they will look for a way to take advantage of you, nine times out of ten. So it’s much easier to assume that this is going to happen and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t.

People are generally only interested in, and outwardly nice to, others if it is to their advantage. Unfortunately I have never been able to work like that, at least not effectively. So I don’t assume that anyone has my best interests at heart and that’s a fairly safe basis for life. Freud saw instincts as an expression of the unconscious mind, perhaps spotting Micro reactions or being attuned to body language. I don’t seem to be able to spot either, or if I do I don’t act on it properly. Therefore I ignore them if they tell me that what I see is what I get, and, until proven otherwise, that I have to be very careful not giving hostages to fortune. I suppose this is what lies at the heart of my view that as a species we are basically bad, and that is one thing I do trust my instincts about!