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Character is seen as an elusive essence to define and study. Early analysts were fascinated by their ability to conceptualize categories of character through the link between latent drives, unconscious fantasies, and surface manifestations—for example,
the oral character. But ordering along conceptual lines can prematurely foreclose further inquiry. An alternative is to stay with an empirical approach which describes traits that remain stable, predictable, and enduring over time. Distinguishing normal from pathological traits poses thorny questions of value judgment. Freud's inspired solution was to use the therapeutic situation as a testing ground. Character traits which are obstacles to analysis may be designated pathological since they also impede the capacity to love and work.
Are character traits really continuous from childhood into adulthood? In some sense they are, but the developmental process also emphasizes discontinuities. Sequences of phase organization and the appearance of novel ways of thinking and feeling imply the presence of transformational activities. Such transformations pose interesting problems for a theory of character development as well as for child and adult analytic practice.
The relative impact of maturation and experience on formation of character is a subject of intense study, for example, in infancy research. We are often impressed by the impact of the infant's innate disposition on evolving drives, object relations, and defenses. But psychoanalysis again recognizes the complex, ongoing synthesis of many maturational processes, as well as the impact of later experiences, leading to an often unpredictable variety of character traits.
Finally, in the therapeutic process, to what extent is character changed by the integration of new insights, or rather, by the generating of experiences within the therapeutic interaction which effect changes in the representational structure? It seems that both integration and interaction work in tandem.