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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|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).
