Is it a bad thing to be running on the Instinct of Self Preservation?

Is it a bad thing to be running on the instinct of self preservation?
Is it?

What is more important than to survive? We need things (humans at least) to survive, to be alive. As babies and children, we need touch, need love, need nourishment, need protection, need compassion. That assists in our beginnings of survival. Our instincts of what is bad and good on the very basic level are still building up, still assessing what it means to be in this new body, in this new world, with these people who we are completely and utterly reliant on.

As we get older, we need reassurance, we need affection, we still need love and compassion, we need to be able to trust. Those are necessarily needed to survive on the BASIC level, but it's needed to survive for our sanity's sake. If you love no one, trust no one, are assured and receive no affection from anyone, what kind of monster will you become?

It still brings me back to the question of, is it a bad thing to be running on the instinct of self preservation?

Self defense of any kind is a natural reaction. If something is coming towards your face, you hold you hands up to block it. It some liquid splashes towards your eyes, you close them. If something brings you pain, you pull away, you struggle. Against the tied, against the pull, against the current... we struggle to stay alive.

At what cost will you survive? What would you do to stay alive? To preserve your own existence?