The table below lists specific appraisals which evoke one or other of eight survival strategies. They are respectively Rescue and Attachment, Assertiveness and Adaptation, Fight and Flight, and Competition andCooperation, forming four complementary pairs.
Survival strategies are listed according to their adaptive and maladaptive, biological, psychological and social characteristics. These characteristics may act in concert, though individual characteristics may be emphasised as specific symptoms at different times.
Similarly, the apparently static view of the table belies the dynamism within it, and its relationship to parameter and moral dimensions.
The first line for each psychological and social description of survival strategy responses refers to physical survival, while the second to provision of resources. The third lines (bold and underlined) are combinations of both.
The table lists traumas which may arise from each unsuccessful survival strategy. To the right of the Table (not shown) are interactions of traumas with defences and illnesses.To the left of the Table (not shown) are interactions with the initial traumatic situations.
Adaptive and maladaptive judgments of worth are included to give a sense of survival strategy interactions with other, in this case the moral dimension.
A third dimension (also not shown), the parameters dimension indicates what, where when to whom stress and trauma occur, eg to individuals, families, or nations.
Survival struggles in their three dimensions constitute The Wholist Perspective.
| Appraisal of means of survival | Survival Strategies (click links for more info) | Anatomical Substrate | Adaptive / coping responses | Maladaptive / not coping responses | Trauma | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biological | Psychological | Social | *Judgments of worth | Biological | Psychological | Social | *Judgments of worth | |||||||||
↔ | 1. Must save others | ↔ | rescue, protect, provide | ![]() | thalamus cingulate gyrus | ↑estrogen ↑oxytocin ↑opioids | care empathy devotion | responsibility nurture preservation | responsible giving altruistic | ergotropic & trophotropic arousal | burden depletion self-concern | resentment neglect rejection | irresponsible neglectful egotistic | ↔ | anguished compassion fatigue caused death | ↔ |
| 2. must be saved by others | attachment protected provided | ![]() | hypothalamus cingulate gyrus | ?↑opioids | held,cared for nutured looked after | close, secure content union | worthy deserving lovable | ↓opioids ↑crf | yearning need, craving abandonment | insecure deprived separation | unworthy encumberance rejectable | helplessness cast out left to die |
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| 3. must achieve goal | assertiveness combat work | ![]() | hypothalamus lateral tegmentum | ↑e, ↑ne ↓cortisol ↑immunocomp. | strength control potency | will high morale success | strong capable successful | ↑↑ergotropic ne depletion ↑bp, ?↑chd | frustration loss of control impotence | willfulness low morale inadequate | inadequate incompetent failure | exhaustion burn-out powerlessness |
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| 4. must surrender goal | adaptation accept grieve | ![]() | hippocampus septum | ↑trophotropic ↑pit-adrenoc ↑cortisol | acceptance sadness, grief hope | yielding mourning turn to new | pitiful sympathy tribute | ↑cortisol ↓immunocomp ↑infection↑ca | overwhelmed depression despair | collapsed withdrawal giving-up | weak pathetic despicable | damaged given-in succumbing |
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| 5. must remove danger | fight defend rid | ![]() | hypothalamus tegmentum amygdala | ↑ne, renin, e ↑pit-adrenoc ↑cortisol | threat revenge frighten | deterrence wounding riddance | brave noble heroic | ↑↑ergotropic opioids vary ↓cort | hatred persecution killing | attack eradication destruction | violent wicked murderer | horror evil murder |
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| 6. must remove oneself from danger | flight run, hide save oneself | ![]() | hypothalamus amygdala cingulate | ↑erg & troph ↑da, b-end ? ↑serotonin | fear terror deliverance | retreat flight escape | pitiable vulnerable refugee | ne & da depletion ↑e & ↓cortisol | phobia paranoia engulfment | avoidance panic annihilation | timid panicky coward | inescapable shock being hunted, killed |
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| 7. must obtain scarce essentials | competition dominance acquisition | ![]() | hypothalamus hippocampus septum | ↑testosterone ↑ne & e | winning status power | contest hierarchy possession | superior respected honored | ↓testosterone ↓fsh & lh ↑acth | defeat greed, envy exploitation | oppression struggle plunder | inferior contemptible humiliated | terrorization marginalization elimination |
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| 8. must create more essentials | cooperation trust mutual gain | ![]() | amygdala temporal & cingulate gyri | ↑opiates ↓bp, e & ne ↑trophotropic | mutuality generosity love | integration reciprocity creativity | tender poignant beautiful | ↓opiates ?↑trophotropic overactivity | betrayal selfishness abuse | disconnection robbery fragmentation | deceived seduced perverted | disintegration alienation decay |
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E, epinephrine; NE, norepinephrine; immunocomp, immunocompetence; pit-adrenoc, pituitary-adrenocortical axis; erg, ergotrophic system (arousal system including sympathetic nervous system); troph, trophotropic system (relaxation system including parasympathetic nervous system); BP, blood pressure; DA, dopamine; B-end, Beta endorphin; CRF, corticotropin releasing factor; CHD, coronary heart disease; CA, cancer; FSH, follicle stimulating hormone; LH, luteinising hormone; ACTH, adrenocorticotropic hormone
* Part of moral judgements. Judgements of good and bad, and of just and unjust are not shown.