A Psychoanalytic Study of Integrity and “Good Character”

One should look beyond the patient's illness and form an estimate of his whole personality; those patients who do not possess a reasonable degree of education and a fairly reliable character should be refused. It must not be forgotten that there are healthy people as well as unhealthy ones who are good for nothing in life, and that there is a temptation to ascribe to their illness everything that incapacitates them, if they show any signs of neurosis.

Our assessments of analyzability are adventures in the art and science of weighty predictions about human personality. In this process we quickly confront one paradox after another. For instance, if we exclude consideration of the “widened scope” disorders, such as severe personality disorders and borderlines, and focus on the personality traits we deem necessary for a neurotic person to complete the rigorous process of psychoanalysis, we discover that we are looking for positive qualities of character that might be hoped for after the completion of an unusually successful analysis. In our modern world these elusive qualities of good character seem rare even among many well-analyzed persons.

A partial list of some of the ideal personality traits for which we search in our quest for “The Right Stuff” of analyzability would include: good enough socioeconomic resources, marital stability, insightfulness, introspectiveness, imaginativeness, and intelligence. A good enough analysand has good enough anxiety tolerance, frustration tolerance, impulse control, and motivation. We hope this analysand has a good enough childhood history—that is one without severely traumatic events, deprivations, or neglect. We want an analysand with good enough education and, just as important, “fairly reliable character.” Seven virtues of good character would include: integrity, humility, tenacity, patience, curiosity, sense of humor and inner courage.

Are these virtues dead in our materialistic, economically insecure, money-mana