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The purpose of this paper is to point out some of the indications, possibilities, and limitations of working with a patient once a week using the method of character analysis. Character analysis, as it has been and is being developed by Dr. Horney, is such a new and versatile tool for therapy and investigation, that we have only begun to explore its possibilities. The premises inherent in character analysis are quite different from those dictated by the method of Freudian analysis.
Freud was moving through uncharted fields. The more one is limited in knowledge and lacking in the tools with which to gather that knowledge in any field of endeavor, the greater the tendency to adhere to rules of conduct pertinent to other fields of investigation. There is also the tendency to make into rules to be adhered to, hypotheses which should only be tentative formulations as guides for action.
For these reasons Freud attempted to apply the scientific method as he knew it to his psychoanalytic investigations. He therefore concluded that in order to get a complete record of what was going on in a patient, he should be seen daily. He compromised however on seeing a patient six times weekly. Actually, he compromised once before that, because to adhere strictly to the scientific premise on which he operated, he should have spent 24 hours of the day with his patient.
The human factor had intruded itself in his investigations from the very start. Cold scientific objectivity was not possible with human beings. What are often referred to as practical considerations are really human factors. The fact is that such a scientific investigation could not be carried out, i.e., 24 hours a day observation, for the analyst could not