THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PERSONALITY 19somebody whom I saw for fi ve 50 - minute sessions a week over a period
of four years. Some people fi nd it helpful to devote a part of their day
to refl ection. Such an intense process is rare outside the helping profes-
sions: this kind of continuity, however, gives the psychoanalyst an
opportunity to observe microscopic changes in mood states and behav-
ior. The rich description that this sort of experience allows should
compensate for sample size.
Length of treatment is very much a consequence of the process of
working through insights acquired during the psychoanalytic process —
the time it takes to deal with resistances. Insight by the client into the
origins of many patterns of behavior can be acquired relatively quickly.
However, in psychoanalytic treatment, the bulk of the time is spent on
reporting, experimentation, and the exploration of new ways of dealing
with present life experiences. The Chinese have a saying, ‘ The eye
cannot see its own lashes, ’ which sums up the process. Changing estab-
lished behavior patterns can take quite some time, as many people have
a tendency (particularly in situations of crisis) to fall back on their old
ways of functioning. In human behavior, the wish to recover is strongly
matched by the desire to cover.
When listening to a person ’ s story, it is essential to bear in mind the
distinction between narrative and historical truth (Spence, 1982 ; Edelson,
1993 ). The most critical part of a person ’ s story is how he or she remem-
bers it. That version of the truth will create the psychological impact
that shapes personality. Whether or not the remembered version is true
to the facts is much less important. Our sense of identity is very much
the heir of the personal myth by which we live, a myth that connects
the past with the present (Hartocollis and Graham, 1991 ). The psycho-
analyst pieces these stories together from different fragments into an
integrated whole.
The insights provided by this exploratory study have been enhanced
by knowledge derived from a considerable number of structured and
unstructured interviews with entrepreneurs, plus a large questionnaire -
driven research database (Kets de Vries et al ., 1989 ). Although these other
studies have helped me to understand better the dynamics of entrepre-
neurship, none, however, has provided me with the kind of insight that
I derived from the intense, clinical dialogues I had with this client.
Most importantly, this case history permits a rare look at the inner
world of an entrepreneur, a look that goes beyond the party line that
is so often found at the heart of traditional interviews. This case history
provides a rich store of information in which the interplay of person-
ality and environment, and the process of personal change, can be
observed in great depth. It tests some of the conjectures made about