Utilizing the methods of comparative psychoanalysis (ethnopsychoanalysis), the authors compare three corresponding personality traits of patients who were analyzed in private practice in Zürich. The Germans showed fluency of speech, an internalized sadistic superego, and an ego prone to efficient performance, whereas the Swiss pattern was inhibition of speech, an externalized "persecuting" superego, and inhibition of ego performance. The triad was traced back to the vicissitudes and the outcome of the anal stage of development, especially to educational attitudes of the mothers displayed during the fourth phase of the individuation process. The typical and determining child-rearing practices can be traced back to different historical situations of the same social class in the adjoining countries and to differing economic and social pressures acting on the families.