The Wishy-Washy Personality

THIS ESSAY IS INTENDED TO develop further and explicate a characterology of psychoanalytic self psychology. As with all character studies it should be seen as highlighting traits that are ubiquitous to some degree in the entire population, while outstanding in some few individuals. It is thus to be considered as a lifelong pattern of behavior which in turn is tied to normal development. This linkage should not be seen as connecting a specific time of occurrence, but rather as one denoting a certain enduring quality of relationships. We may see the self through life as having qualities of coherence, firmness, harmony, continuity, etc. This last point, that of a feeling of sameness through time and space, will be focused upon as crucial to the emergence of the particular character to be considered here. In a previous paper on the misfit, the developmental difficulty of that pattern was noted to be a failure to achieve a necessary transition from one stage to the next because of the lack of sustaining selfobjects at the succeeding stage. The present cohort of patients is differentiated on the basis of the failed sense of stability which would allow such a transit to be even considered. In a simplified way this would translate to the wishy-washy person showing a defect earlier than the misfit, but such a simplification should not be read as being time-bound, e.g., the first at 13 months and the next at 21 or as reflecting severity of pathology. Since we see that people need stability and responsiveness throughout life, we should be able to highlight a character disorder that reflects the problematic state of these needs. The one that is selected here for examination is that of self-continuity. Once again it is necessary to examine this sort of organization primarily in terms of the emerging transference manifestations and not at all in a phenomenological or descriptive sense of social relationships, although these may conform to what is ultimately