Character and Resistance

To define 'character', we may start with the etymology of the word, derived from the Greek 'charassein', which means 'to make sharp, to cut into furrows, to engrave'. 'Charakter' designates in ancient Greek the instrument with which the engraving is done, the chisel, and the sign which results from the engraving. In this sense we speak of Greek, Latin, and Cyrillic 'characters', referring to the letters of different alphabets which were originally engraved in clay. The meaning of character as we use it nowadays developed relatively late in the Greek language. From this it becomes clear that character designates the features of personality which are more or less indelibly engraved upon it, features which of course express themselves in actions and reactions, features that are 'characteristic' of the individual, features by which one ego structure can be differentiated from others. Since actions and reactions as they manifest themselves are the function of the ego, we are accustomed to attribute character to the ego. But character is formed not only by the specific ways of dealing with the multitude of stimuli which rush toward the ego from without and from within, but, in its deepest roots, it is formed also by the specific demands, or better, the specific quantity of demands pressing upwards from instinctual strivings of the id. Character is thus based on the organic substratum of the psychic personality, as was pointed out by Freud: 'The tendency to repression, as well as the ability to sublimate, must be traced back to the organic bases of the character, upon which alone the psychic structure springs up'.1

As a third factor the superego, with its specific demands, its rigidity of do's and don't's, is an essential contributor to character