Character and Neurosis1

We see quite a number of patients who are free from neurotic symptoms but who behave pathologically. Such patients suffer from so-called character neuroses. They discharge their impulses, wishes, and fantasies in the external world, while symptom neurotics usually satisfy their drives through their own person. Character neurotics perform strange actions for which they sometimes find justifications, sometimes not. However, it is usually not possible to distinguish the rational from the irrational in their behaviour. Often it takes years before the irrational motivation is recognized; meanwhile they may have ruined themselves and their families. Whereas the symptom neurotic suffers from his illness and usually endures it passively, the character neurotic is hardly aware of being ill, and through his acts obtains gratification for his unconscious strivings.

Before we go further in our discussion, we must try to understand the nature of character. This is a difficult task, for character is an elusive phenomenon, not easily defined.

In evaluating a character one may perhaps rely on one's personal impressions and say: this man or that woman has a good or a bad character, a weak or a strong one. Such an opinion, however, will be wrong, at least as often as not. Or one may try to use external data as criteria of character, for instance, physical features only. Again one will soon be disappointed, for a masculine-looking woman may prove to be very feminine, a feminine-looking man masculine, and the like.

It is therefore necessary to look for more reliable criteria. Spread throughout Freud's writings are many remarks about the nature of character. Once, in a small circle, he offered a concise review of the problem, but, to my knowledge, never published it.

Character is a combination, or rather a synthesis, of many traits, habits, and attitudes of the ego. Sometimes one trait prevails, sometimes another. One may be tempted by this fact to evaluate a man's character