Discussion

DR. WAHL'S PAPER IS A USEFUL highlighting of certain aspects of the psychoanalytic situation in the treatment of "the rich, the famous, and the influential." Although the paper is discursive and touches on many matters, I believe that the phenomenon that is central to it is that of the stereotyping of individuals who are members of particular groups. Webster II defines a stereotype as "anything repeated or reproduced without variation; anything conforming to a fixed or general pattern and undistinguished by individual marks, …" Hence, notions that tend to fix and define all Jews, blacks, men, women, psychoanalysts, the rich, etc., are examples of stereotypes to the extent that the group encompassed are "undistinguished by individual marks."

Sullivan (1953) described stereotyping as a regular and, more or less, necessary function for the developing individual and suggested its appearance in the juvenile period. He noted,

if only because of the speed with which the awesome varieties of people and behavior are impressed on the juvenile, it is hard indeed to avoid organizing—accessible to awareness—crude classifications of people, performance and so on, which really are irrational and which later become troublesome stereotypes.