Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-18T14:59:25.862Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Obsessional Personality and Anal-Erotic Character

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2018

I. M. Ingram
I. M. Ingram*
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Popular psychiatric terms are often used uncritically and it is salutary to examine our usage from time to time. “Obsessional” is such a word; it may describe a symptom or a type of personality, with immediate possibilities of misunderstanding. Here it is used to describe a type of personality, as in the phrase “obsessional personality”. The current usage of this phrase will be examined and it will be compared with the usage of the “anal-erotic character” of psychoanalysis. The two terms differ: the obsessional personality is purely descriptive while the anal-erotic character is based on a theory of personality development; yet they are often used synonymously. Do they differ in descriptive detail? If so, how and why? An attempt will be made to answer these questions by an analysis of descriptions of the terms.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 107 , Issue 451 , November 1961 , pp. 1035 - 1042
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1961 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Abraham, K., “Contributions to the theory of the anal character, 1921”, in Selected Papers, 1949. Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
2 Curran, D., and Partridge, M., Psychological Medicine. 4th edition. 1955. Livingstone.Google Scholar
3 Ewalt, J. R., Strecker, E. A., and Ebaugh, F. G., Practical Clinical Psychiatry. 8th edition, 1957. New York: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
4 Fenichel, O., The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis, 1946. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
5 Frankl, L., and Mayer-Gross, W., Lancet, 1947, 820.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6 Freud, S., “Character and Anal Erotism, 1908”, Collected Papers, 1924. Vol. 2. Hogarth Press.Google Scholar
7 Henderson, D. K., and Gillespie, R. D., A Textbook of Psychiatry. 7th edition, 1950. Oxford.Google Scholar
8 Hetherington, R. R., and White, E. A., J. Ment. Sci., 1950, 96, 521.Google Scholar
9 Janet, P., Les Obsessions et la Psychasthénie, Ed. 2. 1908. Paris.Google Scholar
10 Jones, E., “Anal-erotic character traits, 1918”, in: Papers on Psychoanalysis. 5th edition. 1950. London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
11 Lewis, A. J., Proc. Roy. Soc. Med., 1936, 29, 325.Google Scholar
12 Idem , Practitioner, 1938, 141, 21.Google Scholar
13 Idem, in: Price, F. W., ed., A Textbook of the Practice of Medicine, 8th edition. 1950. Oxford.Google Scholar
14 McAdam, W., and Orme, J. E., J. Ment. Sci., 1954, 100, 913.Google Scholar
15 Mayer-Gross, W., Slater, E., and Roth, M., Clinical Psychiatry, 1954. London: Cassell.Google Scholar
16 Noyes, A. P., Modern Clinical Psychiatry. 3rd edition. 1948. London: W. B. Saunders.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
17 Orlansky, H., Psychol. Bulletin, 1949, 46, 1.Google Scholar
18 Raven, J. C., Brit. J. Psychol., 1950, 40, 115.Google Scholar
19 Sandler, J., and Hazari, A., Brit. J. Med. Psychol., 1960, 33, 113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20 Sewell, W. H., Mussen, P. H., and Harris, C. W., Amer. Soc. Rev., 1955, 20, 137.Google Scholar
21 Skottowe, I., Clinical Psychiatry, 1953. Eyre & Spottiswoode.Google Scholar
22 Valentine, M., An Introduction to Psychiatry. 1st edition. 1955. Livingstone.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.