CHARACTER - INTRODUCTION - One session
Much of this is from:
Liebert, Robert S. (1988) The concept of character: a historical review. Chapter 2 in Masochism: Current
Psychoanalytic Perspectives, edited by Robert A. Glick and Donald I.
Meyers. The Analytic Press. Hillsdale, NJ; Hove and London.
Character traits – clearly delineated, typical, and
stable behaviour that is readily observable and, importantly, is selected for
attention because of its implications for the broader fabric of psychic organization
and social adaptation; may be ego syntonic or along a continuum to ego dystonic
Character types – groupings of individuals who have
enough shared and overlapping specific behavioural patterns to enable us to
generalize about their common developmental situation, psychic structure,
object relationships, self-imagery, and controlling fantasies.
Character – ill-defined, an organization;
character as observable behaviour or as a set of abstractions as described
within a particular theoretical orientation; a codification of a constellation
of related behaviours.
History of the concept
Freud (1908) Character and anal erotism –
clinical and theoretical; saw the function of character as a means of resolving
conflict. Freud conceived of the
instinctual drives as the energic basis and moving force of the otherwise inert
psychological organism. Person evolved
through a series of invariable psychobiological stages in which successful
adaptation and progress to the next was governed by the reality principle, with
repression serving as the major means of transforming the person from primary
process beast to civilized being.
In this work,
Freud chose the anal zone and the transformation of the intense erogenicity of
this tissue at a specific phase of development into a constellation of related
character traits. These traits –
orderliness, parsimony, and obstinacy – formed a pattern of observable behaviour
that was functionally adaptive and endured over time as the person moved
through progressive stages of psychosexual development. The characterological outcome was
variable, depending on the interaction of constitutional factor and the
predominance of the defensive process employed – sublimation or reaction
The permanent character-traits are either
unchanged promulgations of the original instincts, or sublimations of those
instincts, or reaction formations against them. (p.175)
character type had Freud been dealing with but had not described as such?]
were yet to come in his writing?]
have been described since Freud?]
Other stages –
oral, phallic, genital – held the potential for generating a specific set of
related character traits. Adult
character emerged as a fabric woven with threads consisting of traits derived
from each epoch of development. It
was a progression marked by fixations and regressions, as well as advances. Once firmly based at the level of
genitality, the person became relatively insulated from a regressive
of a progression in stages of psychosexual development to the final ideal of
the genital character has been criticized – most notably by Reiff, 1959 – as
being a conflation of moral attitude and scientific observations. The criticism is that inherent in this
model is that the genital heterosexual character is the only normal
adaptation. Thus other paths and
outcomes would represent failures in development.)
Freud (1914) Remembering, repeating and working
through – the result of the repetition compulsion in relation to both the choice of
love objects and to the form in which love is expressed, which are shaped by the
nature of repressed and unfulfilled libidinal instincts and contribute to the
of acting out which referred to a pattern of substituting actions of
particular symbolic meaning for repressed conflicted
memories. These concepts speak to the
consistency and regularity of character and its modality of expression.
Freud (1914) On narcissism – investment of
the ego versus investment of real or fantasized objects. Basis of choice of love objects,
anaclitic or narcissistic.
Development of ego ideal and superego. Sources and management of self-esteem.
Karl Abraham (1919) A particular form of neurotic
resistance against the psycho-analytic method - narcissism as a potential limit
Freud (1919) A child is being beaten – an
illustration of the role of unconscious and conscious fantasy in dictating the
behaviour that becomes each individual's uniquely characteristic adaptive mode.
Freud (1920) Beyond the pleasure
principle – repetition compulsion; the death instinct.
Freud (1923) The ego and the id – (A move
from character as a derivative of libidinal drives to) the ego as the heir to
abandoned object cathexes, in the form of structured identifications with these
lost objects. Included concept of
aggressive drive. Development of
superego and ego ideal via introjections of the related aspects of the parental
internalizations. Character is
contributed to by the tension between these two agencies.
"choice of neurosis" includes a constitutional factor.
Freud (1924) The economic problem of
masochism – effects on the character of the ego's "need to suffer"
(and the operation of the death drive}.
envy" in the woman as a potential limit to analyzability. "Castration fear" in the man
as a potential limit to analyzability.
Freud (1925) Inhibitions, symptoms and
anxiety – ability of ego to use anxiety as a signal; includes a constitutional
Freud (1927) Fetishism – effects on character of the splitting of
Wilhelm Reich (1933) Character Analysis –
character is the adversary which must be defeated; called it
"armour"; primarily and essentially a narcissistic protection
mechanism which developed in response to the dual threats of dangers in the
external world and the claims of the id.
Character – as a means of avoiding pain through its capacity to absorb
that quantity of instinctual energy which has escaped repression. Conservator of the infantile past in
the present. Through its analytic
dissection the central infantile conflicts became accessible and subject to
resolution. Character (resistance)
was thought of as the enemy who was to be smashed in battle.
Anna Freud (1936) – more differentiated
description of the defenses and their coordination with specific sources of
psychic danger: external reality and the id and the superego. Refined the ordering of the mechanisms of
defense in a developmental sequence.
Thought of character as the enemy who was to be treated with respect and
won over as an ally.
Melanie Klein (1946) – Character is the form of
the resolution of the two fundamental psychic positions in relation to mother
(paranoid-schizoid, depressive); this resolution characterizes all of one's
personal relationships thereafter.
Position implied a specific configuration of object relations,
anxieties, defenses (as well as the structure of the ego and superego) that
persist throughout life and substantially define the character of the
individual. Character is more a
psychobiological entity rather than an interpersonal or culturally determined
one; sees the infant as perceiving in the mother and outer world what he has
projected onto them (a raging instinctual drama of sex and aggression), and
then internalized it anew.
Otto Fenichel (1945) – a conceptual model;
"the habitual mode of bringing into harmony the tasks presented by
internal demands and by the external world, which is necessarily a function of
the constant, organized, and integrating part of the personality which is the
ego." The final outcome of
the character is attributable to the strength and nature of the superego, as
well as cultural variations.
of the resolution of the structural intrapsychic conflict became the basis for
a general classification of character; two broad types: the sublimation type and the reactive type. In the sublimation type, the ego succeeds in replacing an
original instinctual impulse with one that is compatible with the ego, one that
is organized, socially acceptable and inhibited as to aim. In the reactive type, countercathectic
forces block the instinctual discharge and the result is character formation in
one of two main directions, avoidance and
inhibition on the one hand, or opposition
on the other (based on reaction formation). His classification depended on the dominance of instinctual forces, superego (as in the masochistic character) or external objects (social anxieties, pseudointimate sexuality).
of these two types would more likely lead to pathology?]
Hartmann, Kris, and Loewenstein (1964) – Character is the result of
the relative strengths and balance of the ego
apparatuses (products of endowment and maturation; our adaptive equipment;
eg. perception and memory) as they are manifest in conflict resolution. Secondary
autonomy of a behavioural form refers to patterns that develop in one
period of development, primarily serving a defensive function, that later
become relatively independent structures operating in a highly adaptive way,
and becoming an integrating feature of the personality. Eg. the
intellectualization functions used defensively in adolescence may evolve into a
newly flexible and creative autonomous character pattern after the instinctual
forces of adolescence have been successfully integrated.
seems to be missing as a cause in this description?]
Abram Kardiner (1945) – studying non-European
cultures, demonstrated that cultural changes are registered by describable
alterations that take place unconsciously in the agencies of the mind. Concept of a basic personality type, which had characterological specificity and
was shared by the members of any given culture. It reflected the cultural needs and institutional patterns
of that society, and, in turn, served to sustain the culture. Emphasized the form and content of the superego as the variable psychic agency
that served this individual and collective function.
yet about the contribution to character of the dynamic interplay between
particular flesh-and-blood mothers and children on the one hand, and the force
of social and historical factors, on the other.)
Harry Stack Sullivan (1953) – addressed individual mother-child interactions
through sequential stages of development, spelling out some of the consequences
for character formation.
Erik Erikson (1959) – (Childhood and Society) a psychosocial theory of ego
development; individual's social development was traced through the unfolding
of his social character in the course of his encounters with the environment at
each of seven phases of his epigenesis. He put these characteristics in the
forms of opposites at each stage, e.g. trust versus mistrust. He explored the social context of each
phase with respect to the radius of significant relations, first with mother,
then the basic family, then a series of extrafamilial social institutions. The ways in which an individual solves
phase-specific developmental tasks in a sequence of phases becomes parallel to
the functioning of each of the stages of libidinal development that continues in
various forms throughout the life cycle.
They semi-culminate at the end of adolescence in an individual identity, which is "both a persistent
sameness within oneself and a persistent sharing of some kind of essential
character with others." They
are influenced by constitutional givens, idiosyncratic libidinal needs,
favoured capacities, significant identifications, effective defenses, successful
sublimations and consistent roles.
Peter Blos (1968) – stressed the importance of
adolescent development to the eventual outcome of character. This will determine how autonomously
the character will function thereafter, the stability of the experience of the
self and the protection of psychic structure from internal and external
Object Relations School, an entirely post-Freudian
phenomenon, emphasized the role in character formation of the interaction
between infants and young children and their mothers. Includes: Balint, Fairbairn, Guntrip, Kernberg,
Winnicott. An example:
Sutherland (1980) – an innate developmental
potential exists, which, if activated by the input of loving, empathic care,
will become the psychological matrix for the later capacity to love and enjoy.
authors view later character formation and patterns of motivation primarily as
a function of the adequacy or inadequacy of the fit between the needs of the
infant and young child and responses of the mother. Hence, Winnicott’s term “good-enough mothering”; Kernberg’s
hierarchy/levels of especially ego functions within each character type.
Balint (1968) – (The Basic Fault) – a subjective sense of "something
missing" as a result of the impaired harmony in the early dyad. Out of this basic fault the individual will develop in one of two typical
directions in subsequent object relations: in one, objects are clung to with a
primitive intensity, lacking in mutuality and characterized by a pathological
hostile dependency; the other involves a reliance on an inner world of fantasy
for sustenance, counterposed against precarious and tenuous relations with
"real" people. Thus,
character is largely defined by the nature of the person's later relations with
objects, directly based on the failure of adequate early mothering.
two types: ocnophilic (prefers to
clutch at something firm when his security is threatened) and philobatic (acrobatic; seeks security
through activities that go through danger)
Winnicott (1960) – schema of the True Self and the False Self (adapted to the needs of the parents).
Kernberg (1976), Meissner (1979), and Schafer
(1968, 1976, 1983) – described what is structured, by what processes, and
what are the forms and fates of these structures as they manifest in different
character types and levels.
Charles Brenner (1981) – character as a compromise formation among drives,
defenses, affects, superego.
Heinz Kohut (1971, 1977) – described the "self" as a separate and organized
entity in development and mature behaviour as the locus of disturbance in most
forms of character pathology. A
superordinate concept, subsuming the drives and the complexities of ego and
superego; an amalgam of inherited and environmental factors, the
"self" "aims toward the realization of its own specific program
of action - the program that is determined by the specific, intrinsic pattern
of its constituent ambitions, goals, skills and talents, and by the tensions
that arise between these constituents." Kohut shifted the emphasis away from conflict and towards deficit, arrest in the healthy
maturation of the self due to failures of the nurturing environment to provide
sufficient empathic care. The "bipolar self"
(the forms in which narcissism manifests development), reveals itself in the
two typical transferences, the mirroring,
and the idealizing. In an intermediate stage of
development, objects who are needed to supply the functions that the immature
self cannot autonomously execute are viewed as parts of, or extensions of, the
self, ie. selfobjects. In health, the mirroring aspect of selfobjects yields to
a characterologic self-assertiveness and realistic ambition; the idealizing
aspect of selfobjects yields to a flexible set of internalized ideals and
values. In pathology, as a result
of the arrest in development, the
child's early objects are maintained as internalized (even personalized) selfobjects
in order to provide psychic cohesion.
Jacques Lacan (1966, 1977) – Character is
completely enmeshed in the symbolic (language-based) structures of the culture
as laid down and/or repressed in the person's unconscious. The ego,
based on identifications and ideals,acts
as a system of defenses that serves as a barrier to the individual's access to
his unconscious, the understanding and managing of which (desires, drives) is
ultimately essential to achieving true selfhood or subjectivity (in the speaking being).
all clinical structures to difficulties in the Oedipus complex. He described three “times” following
the mirror stage. Since it is
impossible to resolve the complex completely, a completely non-pathological
position does not exist. The
closest thing is a neurotic structure.
The neurotic has come though all three times of the Oedipus complex, and
there is no such thing as a neurosis without Oedipus. On the other hand, psychosis, perversion and phobia result
when 'something is essentially incomplete in the Oedipus complex'. (SII) In
psychosis there is a fundamental blockage even before the first time of the
Oedipus complex. In perversion,
the complex is carried through to the third time, but instead of identifying
with the father, the subject identifies with the mother and/or the imaginary
phallus, thus harking back to the imaginary preoedipal triangle. A phobia arises when the subject cannot
make the transition from the second time of the Oedipus complex to the third
time because the real father does not intervene; the phobia then functions as a
substitute for the intervention of the real father, thus permitting the subject
to make the passage to the third time of the Oedipus complex (though often in
an atypical way).
divides the clinical picture into three types: neurotic/normal; perverse;
psychotic; they can also be differentiated on the basis of the person's relation to the Name-of-the-father
(the paternal metaphor; castration).
The structure cannot be altered, but through analysis there can be an
alteration of the subject's position vis-à-vis their character type.
In the normal/neurotic character, the Name-of-the-father
is installed, although in individual ways depending on development (experience
and constitution). The structure
of neurosis is essentially a question,
a question that 'being' poses for the subject. The question of the hysteric is "Am I a man or a
woman?" which relates to one's sex.
The question of the obsessional is "To be or not to be?” or, “Am I
alive or dead?” which relates to the contingency of one's existence. These two ultimate questions have no
solution in the signifier (cannot be answered sufficiently in language). The
person with perversion has no
question; his acts, about which he has no doubt, serve the jouissance of the big Other.
He disavows castration, that
is, he disavows the effect on him of the Name-of-the-father, and locates
himself/herself as the object of the drive, the position of the
object-instrument of the will-to-enjoy which is not his own will but that of
the big Other.
person with psychosis, the Name-of-the-father
is foreclosed, not integrated in his
symbolic universe with the result that a hole
is left in the symbolic order. The
unconscious is not functioning. In
the Oedipus complex, the paternal
function (symbolic) is reduced to the image
of the father (imaginary); there is constant slippage of the signified under the
signifier; a signifier can be taken for a signified; finally the signifier and
the signified are stabilized in the delusional metaphor.