On the Psychoanalysis of the Ability to Wait and of Impatience

During the analysis of an obsessional neurotic patient, the cause of his strange haste for intercourse was discussed. On a certain day he had made an appointment with a new girl friend for 5 P.M. and with his usual girl friend for 9 P.M. The patient's explanation was as follows: I do not know whether the new one will submit to coitus immediately; for safety I have also invited my “old” girl friend. Provided that the affair runs smoothly with the new one, I shall go to the pictures with my “old” girl friend. I asked the patient what explanation he would give for this double insurance, and pointed out the improbability, that it was really only his sexual desire which pressed him so; for he had had regular intercourse, the last time for instance only two days before. Further I reminded him that I had often shown to him to be inwardly disinterested in women, and that he often only used them to displace his aggression, and that the strikingly frequently practised intercourse was also often misused as a defense mechanism: ‘I do not love men, on the contrary I am hyperpotent with women.’

In all probability it was this alibi which again imperatively demanded the coitus. His not being able to wait was therefore neurotic. After some hesitation the patient admitted this, and inquired ironically if the healthy man is really such an artist in being able to wait? Was there literature on this ability in the healthy man? I replied that we know as yet but little about the psychology of the average-normal man. As far as I knew no special study on the psychology of being-able-to-wait in the healthy man existed. Experience alone showed that exaggerated impatience, an instant need to achieve an aim, roused the suspicion of neurotic behavior,