sharp distinction between symptom neuroses and character neuroses:
The difference between character neuroses and symptom neuroses is simply that in
the latter the neurotic character has produced symptoms as well the neurotic symp-
toms are, so to speak, a concentrate of the neurotic character.... The more deeply
we penetrate into its [the symptom’s] determinants, the further we get from the
field of symptomatology proper and the more does the characterological substra-
tum come to the fore^7 .*How did Reich actually deal with defensive character traits in therapy? Here a dis-
tinction he made in The Impulsive Characteris significant: namely, that a patient often feels his
symptom (e.g., a tic, a phobia) as alien, but he tends to rationalize a neurotic character trait
as an integral part of himself. Some of the analytic task consists of helping the patient to
become aware of his character defenses and to feel them as painful. Reich stressed that the
analyst does not urge the patient notto be polite or evasive or arrogant. Rather,
In ... character analysis, we ask ourself why the patient deceives, talks in a confused
manner,why he is affect-blocked, etc.; we try to arouse the patient’s interest in his
character traits in order to be able, with his help, to explore analytically their origin
and meaning. All we do is to lift the character trait which presents the cardinal
resistance out of the level of the personality and to show the patient, if possible,
the superficial connection between character and symptoms; it is left to him
whether or not he will utilize his knowledge for an alteration of his character. ... We
confront ... the patient with it repeatedly until he begins to look at it objectively and
to experience it like a painful symptom; thus, the character trait begins to be expe-
rienced as a foreign body which the patient wants to get rid of^8.Needless to say,a repeated pointing out of the patient’s defensive character traits
does not endear the analyst to the patient. On the contrary, it usually arouses considerable
anger.However, the expression of the anger thus aroused helps undo the need for the par-
ticular defense. If a patient is rigidly polite in part because he fears to express his anger, the
analyst’s provocation by comments can help the patient learn that the consequences of
anger need not be so terrible; the patient need not hold on to his controlled politeness.
Reich also stressed the importance of analyzing character resistances in a logical
order;that is, to proceed from the more superficial to deeper levels of personality. To con-
tinue with the previous example, the defensively polite patient may also be communicating
dreams with clearly incestuous wishes. For Reich it would be a very damaging mistake to deal
with those wishes before first working through the politeness and the rage. Otherwise, the
78 Myron SharafFury On Earth
* Reich developed these concepts in the 1920s but did not give a detailed presentation of them until he published
Charakteranalysein 1933.