ABSTRACT
The mechanisms at the basis of character disorder may be as different as the mechanisms at the basis of symptom neuroses. In regard to the treatment of hidden illness and of ego distortion, the need is for psychotherapy. Character disorders may be divided according to: success or failure on the part of the individual in the attempt of the total personality to hide the illness element. Family life is the place therefore that offers the best opportunity for investigation into the aetiology of character disorder; and indeed it is in the family life, or its substitute, that the child’s character is being built up in positive ways. Character disorder indicates that the individual’s ego structure can bind the energies that belong to the stunting of maturational processes and also the abnormalities in the interaction of the individual child and the family.
