On the Nature of Obstinacy

Obstinacy was one of the traits that Freud associated with the anal character, which he first described in 1908. Following his original paper, numerous contributions appeared that confirmed and elaborated—sometimes ingeniously—his findings. Mention will be made only of the magisterial contributions of Abraham and Jones.

Nothing new was added to our knowledge until 1943, when Christine Olden reconsidered the topic from the standpoint of ego psychology. As she pointed out, “Psychoanalytic literature has been more concerned with the fact that obstinacy derives from anality than in stressing the function of obstinacy for the ego.”9a She continues: “The development of ego-psychology has emphasized the importance of this struggle between the ego and threatening forces from within and without, and obstinacy,” she concludes, “is the symptom of such a struggle.” She rightly observes: “The obstinate person is one who fights not to achieve some aim in reality … but rather to reestablish a subjective feeling of supremacy.”9b This she later defines as “a feeling of self-esteem through magical feelings of omnipotence.”9a

As the aim of obstinacy is to achieve this illusory sense of omnipotence, it follows that the ends it unconsciously seeks are always unrealistic and consequently self-defeating. Indeed, this is implied in the definition of the word. “It is used rarely in a good or neutral sense,” observes the Oxford English Dictionary, which quotes Sir Thomas Browne, “Obstinacy in a bad cause is but constancy in a good cause.” It is, then, the purpose which this aggressive quality subserves that gives it the pejorative sense we invariably associate with