Acknowledging and Becoming Aware of Our Instinctual Reactions

I wonder if part of the human journey is to acknowledge and become aware of our many instinctual reactions (perhaps our more primitive survival parts?), while not becoming completely controlled or overwhelmed by those instinctual animalistic parts... In an ever evolving environment, it seems some of our instincts meant to help us survive are actually counterproductive... sometimes for the individual, and sometimes for the human species as a whole.