Psychotherapy Practice - The Role of Character Defense and Strategy

Psychotherapy Practice - The Role of Character Defense and Strategy

Character defense and strategy is a perennial favorite among psychotherapy students. It is both an accessible and almost impenetrable subject, fascinating and individualistic, with a typology that provides endless unique permutations of defense against life. This conversation I (R) had with a student (Q) provides a valid introduction to the topic.

Q: What do you mean when you say “defend against life”?

R: We respond to early experiences in infancy, childhood, and adolescence that are unbearable, traumatic, or both. They can be overwhelming, humiliating, shameful or contradictory. Remember that one of the main tasks of early life is to understand events, people and experiences. We need to understand what is happening in our universe from an early age, and this form or structure that we impose on the experience develops over time and through developmental stages into a personal worldview.

Q: But that's good, isn't it?

R: It is necessary. We experience this common-sense worldview as holding ourselves and our universe in a kind of design, a structure in which we can live and function over time. But if we interview introspective, thoughtful individuals, we will be able to see that the worldview we have adopted has less to do with reality and more to do with a coping mechanism, less a profound truth and a more reactive strategy.

Q: But it works?

R: It worked, but then very often the strategy turns against us by limiting our existence, our life experience, our sense of potential, defining who we are and how much we can have, limiting our ability to be fulfilled and content in life, so that we unconsciously sabotage ourselves in all sorts of positive endeavors. The anger that saved us becomes the devil that persecutes us, the deliverer of us from unbearable experiences becomes our harshest, abusive prison guard.

Q: Are there different types of defense strategies, a system for underestimating ourselves and how unconsciously we limit ourselves and our lives?

R: The theory of character typologies began in Western psychology with Freud and developed significantly through the observations and ideas of psychologists such as Fromm, Klein, Jung and especially Reich, whose book Character Analysis is the early classic and reference point for later developments. Subsequently, Lowen and Pierrakos, Ron Kurtz, and Hakomi therapists Stanley Keleman and David Boadella made significant contributions to the field.

Q: Given the complexity of the topic, can you provide a clear overview?

R: There are several systems by which you consider the typology, but an overall summary would be something like this.

First, we have the schizoid type. This activity or life orientation in a person is a response to the experience of being unwanted and precedes any childhood experience because it comes from the womb. It is based on the feeling of not being wanted and subsequently not welcomed, and furthermore, of not really fitting in with others, with social groups or with life itself. The schizoid feels most comfortable alone and is not really able to relate in any sense of the word. He or she will tend to withdraw from external difficulties with life events and especially relationships. The schizoid thinks, deliberates, analyses, and theorizes, and is most comfortable in the rarefied, higher strata of analysis and mental processes unencumbered by emotional and interpersonal engagement.

Second is the oral type. This strategy evolves from deprivation and, at times, an overwhelming deluge of food in the form of nourishment, comfort, and childhood engagement. If a baby's needs are not addressed sensitively and considerately, the child will grow up expecting appropriate treatment from life. The oral personality expects to be cared for, is left disappointed or rejected, and is unable to care for himself. There is another version of this character defense in which the opposite or corresponding imbalance is assumed, i.e. I don't need you; I can do everything without help.

Third, the psychopathic character has everything to do with power. “Power over” is a reality, a real experience for the psychopath, and he or she resorts to the type of treatment experienced in childhood (around age 3) in relation to others. There is never an equal, reciprocal intimacy of a psychopath in a relationship, only an overwhelming will. Dominance and the will to power are all important to the psychopath. Treated inhumanely, usually by the mother, manipulation, seduction, emotional displacement, and feeling special are all tricks that lead to the psychopath's primary statement: I will never allow myself to feel vulnerable again.

Fourth is the masochist. The masochist's self-image formation was halted and prevented from fulfillment in childhood. The treatment that creates a masochist is to prevent the formation of boundaries, to deny the right to an emotional life or any rights at all, and not to be allowed to say no (because it is wrong for a child to refuse or argue with his parents, etc.). Adult masochists usually feel guilt, responsibility and guilt and provoke punishment from others in order to relieve themselves of their hidden, forbidden anger and anger.

Finally, the Rigid Character is the studious, often workaholic type who avoids time for themselves, their relationships, and any activity that does not involve them in the distraction of “doing.” Deep down they have absorbed the statement: My feelings are not important. Typically, the rigid character's budding sexuality was denied or shamed in childhood by one parent or another. Sexually, it becomes a challenge for the adult to combine sex with feeling and love with emotions. His supposed self-defeating task is to prove himself worthy of love. But they can never succeed because everything they do then becomes unworthy; deep down they want to be loved for themselves.

Q: But how exactly does each of these character types employ a strategy that “defends them from life”? And why should we choose that instead of getting busy with life, living fully and enjoying ourselves?

R: The individual expression, mix and layering of character types is quite unique and of course individual. It's not about treating it like popular astrology and saying, "I'm rigid," which is how some people identify with their astrological sun sign. To generalize, however, the schizoid's defense centers on the key message: I must remain isolated; I'm safe when I don't need it. The verbal character's statement would be something like this: You do it for me because I can't do it for myself. The psychopath's mantra is: I must remain in control, remain independent and never enter into a close relationship. The masochist is: I can never be free and will pay for intimacy by being submissive. After all, the guiding message of staring is: I can only be free if I don't want to, so I have to keep my heart closed.

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