Changes

[[Character ]] is a [[psychological ]] [[notion ]] that refers to all the habitual ways of [[feeling ]] and reacting that distinguish one [[individual ]] from [[another]]. Sigmund [[Freud ]] had a sustained interest in the question of character [[formation]], since it touches on the major themes that interested him: "anatomo-[[physiological ]] destiny," [[memory ]] traces, and, more generally, the [[role ]] of acquired traits, as well as the function of [[sublimation ]] with [[regard ]] to the "remains" of the [[pregenital ]] [[libido]].

In The [[Interpretation ]] of [[Dreams ]] (1900a), Freud defined character in [[relationship ]] to the [[unconscious]]: "What we describe as our 'character' is based on the memory-traces of our impressions; and, moreover, the impressions which have had the greatest effect on us—those of our earliest youth—are precisely the ones which scarcely ever become [[conscious]]" (pp. 539-540). This definition posits character as a sort of memory, a collection of traces. Five years later, in [[Three ]] Essays on the [[Theory ]] of [[Sexuality ]] (1905d), Freud emphasized individual [[psychic ]] [[activity]]: "What we describe as a person's 'character' is built up to a considerable extent from the [[material ]] of [[sexual ]] excitations and is composed of [[instincts ]] that have been fixed since [[childhood]], or constructions achieved by means of sublimation, and of [[other ]] constructions, employed for effectively holding in check [[perverse ]] impulses which have been recognized as [[being ]] unutilizable" (pp. 238-239).

In 1920, in an addendum to the Three Essays that reiterates material presented in the article "Character and [[Anal ]] Erotism" (1908b), Freud summarized, "Obstinacy, thrift and orderliness arise from an exploitation of anal erotism, while [[ambition ]] is determined by a strong urethral-[[erotic ]] component" (p. 239, n. 1). Character derives from instincts, but not directly, since reaction [[formations ]] and sublimations intervene. Thus, as Freud noted in "[[Thoughts ]] for the [[Times ]] on War and [[Death]]" (1915b), "The pre-[[existence ]] of strong 'bad' impulses in infancy is often the actual condition for an unmistakable inclination towards '[[good]]' in the [[adult]]" (p. 282).

With the [[development ]] of the notion of [[identification]], that of character took on additional dimensions. Character formation was [[understood ]] to be based on the [[mechanism ]] of identification, that is, [[unconsciously ]] [[identifying ]] with character traits derived from [[objects]]. According to Freud in The Ego and [[the Id ]] (1923b), when a lost [[object ]] is reestablished in the ego, thus allowing an identification to replace object [[cathexis]], this "makes an essential contribution towards building up what is called its 'character' " (p. 28).

The notion of character thus evolved in Freud's [[work]]. The importance Freud attributed to it can be seen in his remarks in "Freud's [[Psycho]]-[[Analytic ]] Procedure" (1904a), where he wrote, "Deep-rooted malformations of character, traits of an actually degenerate [[constitution]], show themselves during [[treatment ]] as sources of a [[resistance ]] that can scarcely be overcome" (p. 254). However, determining character traits is not easy. In "Some Character-types Met with in Psycho-Analytic Work" (1916d), Freud noted that it is not the character traits that [[patients ]] see in themselves, nor those attributed to patients by persons close to [[them]], that pose the greatest problem for [[analysts]]; rather it is the previously unknown and surprising peculiarities often revealed in the course of [[analysis]]. Freud [[analyzed ]] some of the character types revealed through analysis, including those of [[subjects ]] who [[claim ]] for themselves the [[right ]] to perpetrate injustice because they believe they have been subjected to it themselves, subjects "wrecked by success" (pp. 316 ff), and finally, taking a perspective that changed criminology, "criminals from a [[sense ]] of [[guilt]]" (pp. 332 ff).

Karl [[Abraham ]] (1925/1953-1955) returned to the specific issue of the [[anal character]]. A broader, more central notion of character can be found in the work of Wilhelm [[Reich ]] (1933/1945). The [[idea ]] of character analysis, and especially that of "character armor," are linked to his theories of a [[biological ]] [[energy ]] that he later named "orgone energy." Subsequently, these theories became a [[separate ]] [[discipline ]] from [[psychoanalysis]], "bioenergy." Citing the work of Edward Glover and Franz Alexander (who contrasted character [[neurosis ]] and symptomatic neurosis), Reich reconsidered the known character types ([[hysterical]], [[obsessional]], masochistic, etc.) under the presupposition that the primordial function of any character type is to [[defend ]] against stimulations from the [[external ]] [[world ]] and against [[repressed ]] [[internal ]] instincts. The character analysis he developed consists in isolating in the [[patient ]] the character [[trait ]] that is the source of greatest resistance and thus rendering it analyzable. His general idea is that the ego forms a character trait by taking over a repressed [[instinct ]] to use as a [[defense ]] against another instinct. Thus, character is essentially a mechanism of [[narcissistic ]] protection—hence the term "character armor."

After Reich, character became far more important among [[psychoanalysts ]] whose work focuses on the ego. In the [[United States ]] many studies have been published on this topic, notably Heinz [[Hartmann]]'s Ego [[psychology ]] and the problem of [[adaptation ]] (1939/1958).

[[Bibliography]]