ABSTRACT
Freud described his own personality as obsessional, and once said to Jung that, if he were to suffer from neurosis, it would be of the obsessional variety. He described obsessional personalities as 'noteworthy for a regular combination of the three following characteristics. They are especially orderly, parsimonious and obstinate'.1 Found together, these traits constituted what Freud named the 'anal' character, since he believed that they took origin from the period at which the child was being taught control of his sphincters; a period at which the anal region was alleged to be the main focus of emotional concern. In Freud's view, 'Cleanliness, orderliness and trustworthiness give exactly the impression of a reaction-formation against an interest in what is unclean and disturbing and should not be part of the body. ("Dirt is matter in the wrong place.")'2
Obstinacy may first be manifested in the child's refusal to
excrete in the right place at the right time as indicated by those in authority. Parsimony arises because of a peculiar connection between money and faeces; the phrase 'filthy lucre' being one example of such a connection. Today, we think of parsimony in more general terms, as a reluctance to part with bodily contents or with anything that is felt intimately to belong to the self.
