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The modest subtitle of this scholarly monograph disguises a serious and largely successful attempt to provide a comprehensive survey of the development and nature of the concept of character in psychoanalysis. To this encyclopedic enterprise the author adds his own point of view, which is conservative and traditional in the face of the controversies springing from postclassical revisions of Freudian theory. At the same time, the monograph contains a presentation, albeit often summarized all too briefly, of views with which the author is not in sympathy.
The book is divided into an introduction and four parts, with Part One and Part Two providing the bulk of the material.
In his introduction, Hoffmann sets the tone of the book as he discusses his preference for the term "character" over that of "personality." Perhaps not unexpectedly, he is partial to the German language tradition of the term "character," which he feels to be the more dynamic one, even though it is a borrowed word. The term "personality," which he estimates to be more commonly in use in Anglo-American literature, he judges to be less psychoanalytic, more descriptive, and to deal more with traits, patterns, and behavior. Clearly, the two overlap and the differences are subtle, although they are unmistakable to a psychoanalyst. This is a sophisticated book that acknowledges the impossibility of giving clear, precise, well-defined answers while it constructively pursues the possibility of approaching the elusive and almost unknowable. It does this simultaneously from different directions, with a resulting movement toward the "truth" that derives strength from a dialectical process which includes even so-called unacceptable options.
Part One consists of an attempt to reach a definition of the term character as it is used in psychoanalysis. Attention is paid to its differentiation from such related concepts as structure, neurotic character, character neurosis, and psychopathy. This chapter sets the