Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic. LIV, 1990: Classical Psychoanalysis and Object Relations Theory in the Analysis of Character. Harwant S. Gill. Pp. 488-498.

Reviewing the psychoanalytic literature on the treatment of character pathology, the author concludes that integration of classical and object relations theory leads to the best clinical outcome. He offers a detailed illustrative case report. The patient was a kind, generous, admired civic leader who complained of a widening streak of impatience and intolerance in his character. In the first part of the treatment, the analyst believed that these maladaptive traits stemmed from the patient's untamed impulses. The patient reported a series of dreams that led the analyst to identify the sullen, resentful negativism against which the patient appeared to defend himself by conflict avoidance and compromise. The patient was unable overtly to acknowledge that he had ever experienced such feelings in his own life. As treatment progressed, transference interpretation led to reconstruction of early actual family conflicts against which the character traits were effective defenses. The patient did not change his personality significantly; he did gain a capacity for empathy that markedly improved his adaptation.

There is a comprehensive, discerning bibliography.