ABSTRACT
There are occasions when it is important to know what are the fundamental characteristics of the patient with whom authors are dealing. By this the authors mean that there are certain qualities of personality – a capacity for loving is one – which are of great importance in determining the nature of the person and of his behaviour. They would like to know what are the patient’s fundamental characteristics, but curiosity on this topic is hampered because the questions that are the tools of curiosity are often ill-suited to the investigation the authors have in mind. The vocabulary that they employ to frame our questions has been elaborated to serve purposes that are often very different from those of the psychoanalyst; they are hampered, in a manner with which they are already familiar, in our attempts to frame theories and solutions of problems.
