The Self-Preservation Prime Directive of the Five is usually characterized as most like a hermit. Many Fives of this type are thin, whether they formally fast or not because they try to control both their intake and their output because of a deep feeling of impoverishment.
The Self-Preservation Prime Directive is the drive toward survival, security, safety, comfort, and well-being. It is well-grounded and solid. Sometimes people who have a lot of this energy are so grounded that they can seem somber and serious. When we are using our Self-Preservation Prime Directive, we tend to be focused on getting our physical and material needs met, and on defending what we have. People with high Self-Preservation Prime Directive establish and maintain their boundaries. Other people, who do not have strong a Self-Preservation instinct, may see them as selfish, aloof, or always surrounded by an invisible wall.
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One way other people drain a Self-Preservation Five's energy is through their expectations. The acute sensitivity of the Self-Preservation Five senses what the other person wants and feels obliged to respond to their wants and expectations. Even though Self-Preservation Fives are usually quite introverted, they can often be pulled into a social role if that is expected of them.
Each of us responds to perceived threats and needs to assure individual survival. These responses extend to others deemed as important in assuring personal survival or with whom we are identified. These behaviors also are sometimes referred to as support functions or instrumental and task functions. Attention and energy go to issues related to personal survival, such as safety, security, comfort, protection and adequate basic resources of food, shelter and warmth
Fives love privacy and none more than the Self-Preservation Five. They tend to hoard space and time even more than money. All Fives tend to compartmentalize their life, having friends who do not know each other, having a strong relationship but not thinking about that person for long periods of time because they're thinking about something else. The Self-Preservation Five tends to physically act this out a bit more, hiding in books and removing themselves from social engagements for long periods. The Self-Preservation Five will have to physically isolate him or herself in order to let strong feelings emerge into awareness. Only when they are alone can they trust these feelings not to get them into trouble. Like all Self-Preservation's they tend to worry more than the other two Directive.
The Self-Preservation Five use their isolation and stinginess for the sake of superiority and safety from being overwhelmed by emotions. They are intensely sensitive, so they build extra sound boundaries and the Self-Preservation Five builds their boundaries physically. They stay home and haunt their own castle. Some Self-Preservations have a ghost-like quality, with their thin bodies, love of solitude and emotional distance.