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| ISBN-13: | 9780895565112 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Gateways Books & Tapes |
| Publication date: | 09/01/1994 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 352 |
| File size: | 3 MB |
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Character and Neurosis
An Integrative View
By Claudio Naranjo
Gateways Books and Tapes/IDHHB, Inc.
Copyright © 1994 Claudio NaranjoAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-89556-511-2
CHAPTER 1
ANGER AND PERFECTIONISM ENNEA-TYPE I
ENNEA-TYPE I
1. Core Theory, Nomenclature, and Place in the Enneagram
"We may consider wrath in three ways," says Saint Thomas in Questiones Disputatae: "Firstly, a wrath which resides in the heart (Ira Cordis); also, inasmuch as it flows into words (Ira Locutionis), and thirdly, in that it becomes actions (Ira Actiones)." The survey scarcely brings to mind the characteristics of the perfectionistic type as we will be portraying it here. Yes, there is anger in the heart, mostly in the form of resentment, yet not so prominently as anger may be experienced by the lusty, the envious, or the cowardly. As for verbal behavior, it is most characteristic of the anger type to be controlled in the expression of anger, in any of its explicit forms: we are in the presence of a well-behaved, civilized type, not a spontaneous one. In regard to action, ennea-type I individuals do express anger, yet mostlyunconsciously, not only to themselves but to others, for they do so in a way that is typically rationalized; in fact, much of this personality may be understood as a reaction formation against anger; a denial of destructiveness through a deliberate, well-intentioned attitude.
Oscar Ichazo's definition of anger as a "standing against reality" has the merit of addressing a more basic issue than the feeling or expression of emotion. Still, it may be useful to point out at the outset that the label "anger type" is scarcely evocative of the typical psychological characteristics of the personality style in question — which is critical and demanding rather than consciously hateful or rude. Ichazo called the ennea-type "ego-resent," which seems a psychologically more exact portrayal of the emotional disposition involved: one of protest and assertive claims rather than mere irritability. In my own teaching experience, I started out calling the character's fixation "intentional goodness"; later I shifted to labeling it "perfectionism." This seems appropriate to designate a rejection of what is in terms of what is felt and believed should be.
Christian writers who shared an awareness of anger as a capital sin, that is to say, as one of the basic psychological obstacles to true virtue, mostly seem to have failed to realize that it is precisely under the guise of virtue that unconscious anger finds its most characteristic form of expression. An exception is St. John of the Cross, who in his Dark Night of the Soul writes with characterological exactitude as he describes the sin of wrath in spiritual beginners:
"There are other of these spiritual persons, again, who fall into another kind of spiritual wrath: this happens when they become irritated at the sins of others, and keep watch on those others with a sort of uneasy zeal. At times the impulse comes to them to reprove them angrily, and occasionally they go so far as to indulge it and set themselves up as masters of virtue. All this is contrary to spiritual meekness." And he adds: "There are others who are vexed with themselves when they observe their own imperfection, and display an impatience that is not humility; so impatient are they about this that they would fain be saints in a day. Many of these persons purport to accomplish a great deal and make grand resolutions; yet, as they are not humble and have no misgivings about themselves, the moreresolutions they make, the greater is the fall and the greater their annoyance, since they have not the patience to wait for that which God will give them when it pleases Him."
On the whole, this is a well-intentioned and overly virtuous character arisen as a defense against anger and destructiveness. It would be a mistake, however, to conceive of it as a violent character — for it is on the contrary, an over-controlled and over-civilized interpersonal style. Striking in this style is also an oppositional quality, both in regard to others and to experience in general. While every form of character may be regarded as an interference with instinct, the anti-instinctive orientation of this "puritanical" style is the most striking. A good name for the character (and one applicable beyond the explicitly sick region of the mental health spectrum) is perfectionism — for in spite of the fact that people in some other characterological styles may appropriately refer to themselves as "perfectionistic," this is definitely the orientation in which perfectionism is most prominent. This involves an obsession with improving things that result in making their lives and those of others worse and a narrow-minded concept of perfection in terms of a matching of experience or events with a pre-established code of values, standards, ideas, tastes, rules, and so on.
Perfectionism not only illustrates the fact that the better is the enemy of the best (and the search for the best is the enemy of the better) but may be said to involve a cognitive bias, an imbalance between the allegiances to duty and to pleasure; to gravity and to levity; to work and to play, mature deliberateness and child-like spontaneity.
As a sequel to the word perfectionist — more colloquially — I have caricatured the character as one of "angry virtue," a label that has the advantage of including both the emotional (anger) and the cognitive (perfectionistic) aspects.
Though I personally appreciate Erikson's re-statement of anality as an issue of autonomy that arises at the time of learning sphincter control and walking, I think Abraham and Freud deserve the homage of having for the first time drawn attention to the connection between the prohibition of soiling oneself and obsessive cleanliness.
The position of the anger type in the enneagram is neither at the schizoid nor at the hysteroid corners, but in the group of the upper three characters pervaded by "psychological laziness." It is my experience that, contrary to the fact that many obsessives declare themselves extroverts, this very statement reveals their lack of psychological mindedness, for they are, rather, sensory-motor extroverts with an introverted self-ideal that is part of their refinement and intellectual values. The position of ennea-type I between ennea-types IX and II in the enneagram invites a consideration of how perfectionistic character is not only "anti-intraceptive" but also proud. Indeed the word pride is sometimes used specifically to describe the aristocratic and haughty attitude of the perfectionist rather than the attitude of the type here designated as "proud," whose priding is not so much to be respectable and admirable but to be needed, loved and exalted as very special.
From a survey of many thousands of entries in the literature since 1960, I find that the obsessive-compulsive personality style is the most frequently written about. I imagine that this may be due to its being the most clear cut and recognizable, and yet I also think that a confusion has slipped into the use of the term "anankastic," by which the obsessive-compulsive is frequently designated in Europe. Also, in regard to the "anal personality" syndrome of psychoanalysis I think that sometimes the term has been applied to the obsessive-compulsive proper and at other times to the more controlled and obsessive-like schizoid individuals. In my experience it is the schizoid personality which is more frequently found as the background of ego-dystonic obsessions and compulsions, andnot the obsessive, in which cleanliness and order are ego-syntonic.
2. Antecedents in Scientific Literature on Character
I learned from Kurt Schneider's Psychopathic Personalities that it was J. Donath who introduced the concept of anankastic personalities in 1897. Writing in the early twenties Schneider reports that literature on "obsessive state is almost impossible to encompass," yet he doesn't draw a clear distinction between what until recently was called an obsessive neurosis and obsessive personality. Though there is no doubt that he was acquainted with our "perfectionist" and the picture of this character was in his mind as he wrote part of his chapter on the "insecure" the very fact that he did regard the anankastic along with the "sensitive" as varieties of the insecure disposition suggests to me that he fell for the same confusion that became later apparent in the concept of anal personality — a confusion between our perfectionist and the schizoid, which have some common characteristics and yet contrast sharply in other respects.
Reading Von Gebsattel on anankastic personality I have the distinct impression that it is a schizoid form of obsessiveness that he has in mind, which inclines me to think that up to this day the confusion survives. Since the ICD-IX, which still has not been superseded by DSM-III in some countries, includes Kurt Schneider's system of classification in regard to personality, it is pertinent to point out that there is no place in this classification for our perfectionist except possibly as a variety of the "insecure." Although theoretically it is admissible that an excessive formality may be a reaction to a deeper insecurity, the terminology leads to a further confusion since it obscures the clear contrast between the assertiveness of our ennea-type I and the withdrawn timidity of ennea-type V at its antipode.
"On the expressive psychology of the anankastic it must be said that, externally they often strike us by their exaggerated meticulousness, pedantry, correctness, and scrupulousness."
In the realm of psychological literature it may be said that the type of person we are discussing was the first of all personality patterns to be observed, when Freud wrote his famous essay on anal character. Karl Abraham picked up and elaborated the idea in the anal character which he begins with a concise summary of Freud's observations:
"Freud has said that certain neurotics present three particularly pronounced character traits, namely, a love for orderliness which often develops into pedantry, a parsimony which easily turns to miserliness, and an obstinacy which may become an angry defiance." Among his original observations is that persons with a pronounced anal character are usually convinced that they can do everything better than other people: "they must do everything themselves."
The next important contribution to the understanding of the ennea-type I syndrome was that of Reich, who writes of it:
"Even if the neurotic compulsive sense of order is not present, a pedantic sense of order is typical of the compulsive character." "In both big and small things, he lives his life according to a preconceived, irrevocable pattern ..." In addition,
Reich points out the presence of circumstantial, ruminative thinking, indecision, doubt and distrust hidden by an appearance of strong reserve and self-possession. He agrees with Freud's observation of parsimony, especially the form of frugality and also shares the interpretation of the character as deriving from anal eroticism. More importantly, however, he underscores what might be viewed as the other side of self-possession: emotional blockage. "He is just as ill-disposed towards affects as he is acutely inaccessible to them. He is usually even-tempered, lukewarm in his displays of both love and hate. In some cases this can develop into a complete affect-block."
It is not surprising that Freud and others have been more aware of thriftiness than of anger in "anal character," for parsimony and austerity are behavioral traits, while anger is mostly an unconscious motive in the personality under discussion. Yet, true as it may be that the tendency to economize and to amass wealth can be present in ennea-type I, I believe that Freud, Abraham and Reich were inadvertently considering together two different syndromes when they discussed anal character: two syndromes (our anger and avarice ennea-types) mapped at the antipodes of the enneagram, and which yet share the quality of being superego driven, rigid and controlled.
While "anal character" is a rather ambiguous concept, we also find in Wilhelm Reich the description of a personality that corresponds more purely to our perfectionist: his case of "aristocratic character," discussed in Character Analysis in support of some general ideas on the function of character. He describes his patient as having "a reserved countenance," and being serious and somewhat arrogant; "his measured, noble stride caught one's attention ... it was evident he avoided — or concealed — any hate or excitement ... his speech was well phrased and balanced, soft and eloquent ..." "As he lay on the couch, there was little if any change in his composure and refinement" ... "Perhaps it was merely an insignificant ... that one day 'aristocratic' occurred to me for his behaviour," Reich comments, "I told him he was playing the role of an English lord" he proceeds, and goes on to discuss in this patient, who has never masturbated during puberty, being aristocratic served as a defense against sexual excitation: "A noble man doesn't do such things."
The syndrome we have been discussing is today identified in the American DSM III as compulsive personality disorder. The following cues are offered by this manual for the diagnosis of this personality:
1. Restrained affectivity (e.g., appears unrelaxed, tense, joyless and grim; emotional expression is kept under tight control).
2. Conscientious self-image (e.g., sees self as industrious, dependable and efficient; values self-discipline, prudence and loyalty).
3. Interpersonal respectfulness (e.g., exhibits unusual adherence to social conventions and properties; prefers polite, formal and correct personal relationships).
4. Cognitive constriction (e.g., constructs world in terms of rules, regulations, hierarchies; is unimaginative, indecisive and upset by unfamiliar or novel ideas or customs).
5. Behavioral rigidity (e.g., keeps a well-structured, highly regulated and repetitive life pattern; reports preference for organized, methodical and meticulous work).
Here follows the picture of the behavioral features of compulsive personality in the words of Theodore Millon:
"The grim and cheerless demeanor of compulsives is often quite striking. This is not to say that they are invariablyglum or downcast but rather to convey their characteristic air of austerity and serious- mindedness. Posture and movement reflect their underlying tightness, a tense control of emotions that are kept well in check. ... The social behavior of compulsives may be characterized as polite and formal. They relate to others in terms of rank or status; that is, they tend to be authoritarian rather than equalitarian in their outlook."
This is reflected in their contrasting behavior with 'superiors' as opposed to 'inferiors.' Compulsive personalities are deferential, ingratiating, and even obsequious with their superiors, going out of their way to impress them with their efficiency and serious-mindedness. Many seek the reassurance and approval of their position. These behaviors contrast markedly with their attitudes toward subordinates. Here the compulsive is quite autocratic and condemnatory, often appearing pompous and self-righteous. This haughty and deprecatory manner is usually cloaked behind regulations and legalities. Not untypically, compulsives will justify their aggressive intentions by recourse to rules or authorities higher than themselves."
In the final elaboration that Karen Horney left us of her clinical experience, Neurosis and Human Growth, she groups together three character types under a general label of "the expansive solutions." These are approaches to life through mastery, in which the individual embraces early in life as a solution to conflicts a strategy of "moving against" others (in contrast to the orientations of those who move seductively "toward" and fearfully "away from" others). One of these three forms of the "solution of mastery" (or "moving against") she calls "perfectionistic" and though she describes it without reference to the earlier "anal" and "compulsive" types in the literature, she contributes substantially to the psychodynamic understanding of the syndrome in question. I quote her:
"This type feels superior because of his high standards, moral and intellectual, and on this basis looks down onto others. His arrogant contempt for others, though is hidden from himself as well — behind polished friendliness, because his very standards prohibit such 'irregular feelings.' His way of beclouding the issue of unfulfilled shoulds are twofold. In contrast to the narcissistic type, he does make strenuous efforts to measure up to his shoulds by fulfilling duties and obligations, by polite and orderly manners, by not telling obvious lies, etc. When speaking of perfectionist people, we often think merely of those who keep meticulous order, are overly punctilious and punctual, have to find just the right word, or must wear just the right necktie or hat. But these are only superficial aspects of their need to attain the highest degree of excellence. What really matters is not those petty details but the flawless excellence of the whole conduct in life. But since all he can achieve is behavioristic perfection, another device is necessary. This is to equate in his mind standards and actualities — knowing about moral values and being a good person. ... The self-deception involved is all the more hidden from him since, in reference to others, he may insist upon their actually living up to his standards of perfection and despise them for failing to do so. His own self-condemnment is thus externalized.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Character and Neurosis by Claudio Naranjo. Copyright © 1994 Claudio Naranjo. Excerpted by permission of Gateways Books and Tapes/IDHHB, Inc..
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Table of Contents
Contents
Preface by Frank Barron,Author's Foreword,
By Way of Introduction: A Theoretical Panorama,
1. Anger and Perfectionism ((Type 1),
2. Avarice and Pathological Detachment ((Type 5),
3. Envy and Depressive Masochistic Character ((Type 4),
4. Sadistic Character and Lust ((Type 8),
5. Gluttony, Fraudulence, and "Narcissistic Personality" ((Type 7),
6. Pride and the Histrionic Personality ((Type 2),
7. Vanity, Inauthenticity, and "the Marketing Orientation" ((Type 3),
8. Cowardice, Paranoid Character, and Accusation ((Type 6),
9. Psychospiritual Inertia and the Over-adjusted Disposition ((Type 9),
10. Suggestions for Further Work on Self,
Appendix-Remarks for Differential Diagnosis,
Biographical Notes,
Index,