The Role of Dynamics of Survival Circuits in the Construction of Personality: Interpretive Perspective of Explore the Neurobiological Foundations
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Personality develops through the continuous interaction between biological imperatives and individual experience. This article presents a conceptual model in which five core adaptive functions—defense, reproduction, energy provisioning, thermoregulation, and fluid regulation—are considered as survival circuits forming the dynamic substrate of personality construction. Each circuit is organized around an energetic polarity, either centrifugal (expansive, outward-oriented) or centripetal (conserving, inward-oriented), which shapes characteristic emotional, cognitive, and behavioral patterns. The model links neurobiological mechanisms with psychological processes and symbolic archetypes, proposing that the enduring structures of personality originate in these survival circuits. It describes how the activation or inhibition of each circuit generates functional archetypes that influence emotional expression, cognitive styles, relational tendencies, and self-identity. A consistent analytical framework is applied to each circuit, outlining its primary adaptive function, underlying neurobiological resources, associated internal states and behaviors, characteristic personality traits, and patterns of dysregulation. This framework is illustrated through clinical applications, including the analysis of functional fragmentation in complex post-traumatic stress disorder and other dissociative presentations. By integrating findings from neuroscience, psychology, and psychocorporal clinical approaches, the model provides a structured perspective on the relationship between survival imperatives and personality organization. It offers a basis for identifying dominant or impaired circuits in clinical settings and for guiding interventions aimed at reintegrating dissociated subsystems. This approach situates personality as a living interface between biology and biography, regulated through the interplay of survival functions and their energetic dynamics.
Author: Alexandre Merle
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4414088393