Anal character

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Anal character is a term used in the psychoanalysis established by Sigmund Freud . It was described in more detail by Karl Abraham in 1923 and its theoretical foundations were further developed by numerous psychoanalysts . The term describes people who have a strong character and a pronounced love of detail and other peculiarities or abnormalities in their experience and behavior. These include, for example, a special love of order and frugality , which, according to psychoanalytic doctrine, is a fixation on the anal level of libido developmentlet accept. This is, inter alia. Abraham, "distinguished by a predominance of the anal and sadistic drive components ". Freud reported on the anal character in 1905 in his Three Essays on Sexual Theory and in 1908 in his Notes on Character and Anal Eroticism .

definition

The online science portal of the journal Spektrum der Wissenschaft suggests the following formulation as a definition in its Lexicon of Psychology :

“Anal character, also: anal character, derived from anus = anus, personality structure so called by S. Freud , the punctuality , order, economy ( stinginess ), accuracy and obstinacy and exaggerated character traits as a result of rigid training on cleanliness and cleanliness other compulsive behavioral characteristics (repeated [ sic ] control whether the light is switched off, the gas tap is closed, the door is locked) have been brought into connection. Term for a bundle of personality traits that  can arise as a result of regression to the anal phase - instead of special neurotic symptoms . "

- Spektrum.de

In addition to regressive processes, Abraham, following Jones, made the "education of the child to be clean" responsible for the development of an anal character. The term is associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder , although symptoms in the real sense are absent. However, according to Abraham, there are psychological relationships “between the two instinctual areas” of sadism and anal eroticism in character formation .

Concept history

The anal character was first described by Sigmund Freud. Karl Abraham took it up:

"Freud's first description of the anal character said that certain neurotics show three character traits in particular form: a love of order that often degenerates into pedantry , a frugality that easily turns into avarice, and an obstinacy that grows to violent defiance ."

- Karl Abraham : Additions to the doctrine of the anal character (1923)

In his remarks from 1923, Abraham continued the Freudian descriptions based on his own knowledge and supplemented them with communications from Isidor Sadger , Sándor Ferenczi and Ernest Jones . He described the "development of the doctrine of anal character" gained through inductive research as "perhaps the strangest and most instructive" example of this kind of knowledge acquisition.

There is hardly any criticism of the concept of the anal character. Instead, it is used again and again by representatives of various scientific disciplines. According to Alan Dundes , an American ethnologist , "the German national character, unchanged for centuries, is a pronounced anal character", as the news magazine Der Spiegel reported in 1985 under the title Obsessive tendency . The sociologist Wolfgang Bonß mentioned the term in 1992 in his work Analytical Social Psychology - Notes on a Theoretical Concept and its Empirical Practice as a forerunner of the authoritarian character , a pair of terms coined by Erich Fromm and represented by the Frankfurt School . The popular science magazine Psychologie Heute used the term in 2020 in connection with the unusual purchase of toilet paper during the corona pandemic :

“The contemporary variant of the anal character doesn't seem to be so much the citizen hoarding toilet paper. They are the particularly neat ones. The morally indignant, who Pharisaically rise above the shit of others. "

- Wolfgang Schmidbauer : Psychology Today

Properties of the anal character

In addition to the three best-known characteristics of orderliness, frugality and obstinacy, which can also be found in the canons of the so-called Prussian and secondary virtues, Abraham put together numerous characteristics in his publication that distinguish the anal character. These people would often be viewed as "weirdos". They are convinced that "they can do everything better than anyone else". This resulted in the idea of ​​“having to do everything yourself because no one else could do it as well as you”, which could increase to the idea of ​​your own uniqueness. This usually goes hand in hand with a pronounced “disdain for all other people”. Quite a few of these characters show a “lasting disturbance of the ability to love” and a tendency to “violent swearing”.

In addition to great persistence, anal characters showed a tendency to “postpone any performance until the last moment”. They adhere to “a self-conceived order”, are subject to an obligation to order and are driven by a lust for power. In addition, there was a desire to " classify and register" and great interest in statistics . They produce lists, statistical overviews and programs with above-average dedication.

With a special relationship to money, almost “all life relationships” of these people are “placed from the point of view [...] of property”, and envy is an essential characteristic . A great "pleasure in looking at property" can also be observed, as is the "pleasing viewing of one's own intellectual products, such as letters, manuscripts [...] or completed work of all kinds". The overemphasis on property makes it particularly difficult for these people to part with objects. They don't like to throw anything away.

Their nature is characterized by a special form of ambivalence , with which, for example, in addition to the obvious cleanliness, as a rule, hidden uncleanliness and disorder are impressive. In this context, Abraham referred to the Berlin saying 'Above hui, below ugh!' and the, as he says, coarse Bavarian phrase 'Beglissen above, shit below!'. The tolerance towards asymmetry is low and so, for example, with their pronounced thoroughness and accuracy, "often the opposite property" can be found at the same time.

With the tendency to defiance and contradiction, according to Abraham, people with an anal character usually do not follow fashion, stand when others are sitting, walk while others drive, and contradict the mainstream in numerous other contexts .

literature

  • Karl Abraham : Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . In: International Journal for Psychoanalysis (IZP) . tape IX , no. 1 , 1923, pp. 27-47 , Psyalpha ( psyalpha.net [accessed April 19, 2021]).
  • Theodor W. Adorno : Studies on the authoritarian character . Preface by Ludwig von Friedeburg (=  Suhrkamp-Taschenbuch Wissenschaft . No. 1182 ). 2nd Edition. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-518-28782-6 .
  • Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik , Daniel J. Levinson, R. Nevitt Sanford: The Authoritarian Personality . Harper and Brothers, New York 1950 (English).
  • Alan Dundes : You me too! The deep-seated in the German psyche . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-423-10763-4 (English: Life is like a chicken coop ladder . 1985. Translated by Aurel Ende).
  • Sigmund Freud : Character and Anal Eroticism . In: Psychiatric-neurological weekly . tape 9 , no. 52 , 1908, pp. 465-67 ( textlog.de [accessed on April 19, 2021] See also: Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 7, pp. 203-209.).
  • Sigmund Freud: About drive transformations, especially anal eroticism . In: International Journal for Medical Psychoanalysis . tape 4 , no. 3 , 1917, ZDB -ID 220241-4 , p. 125-30 ( textlog.de [accessed on April 19, 2021] See also: Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 10, pp. 402-10.).
  • Ernest Jones : About anal erotic traits . In: International journal for medical psychoanalysis . tape 5 , 1919, pp. 69-92 .
  • Isidor Sadger : Anal eroticism and anal character . In: Medicine . No. 2 , 1910, pp. 43-46 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karl Abraham : Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . In: International Journal for Psychoanalysis (IZP) . tape  IX , no. 1 , 1923, ZDB -ID 220241-4 , p. 27-47 , Psyalpha ( psyalpha.net [accessed April 19, 2021]).
  2. ↑ a b c Karl Abraham: Additions to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 27
  3. ↑ Sigmund Freud: Three treatises on the theory of sex. With an introduction by Reimut Reiche (=  Fischer Klassik ). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-596-90180-7 (original title: Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie . 1905.).
  4. ↑ Sigmund Freud: Character and anal eroticism . In: Psychiatric-neurological weekly . tape 9 , no. 52 , 1908, pp. 465-67 ( textlog.de [accessed on April 19, 2021] See also: Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 7, pp. 203-209.).
  5. ↑ Anal character. In: Lexicon of Psychology. Spektrum.de, accessed on April 19, 2021 .
  6. ↑ Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 29
  7. ↑ Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 35
  8. ↑ a b Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 28
  9. ↑ Isidor Sadger : Anal eroticism and anal character . In: Medicine . No.  2 , 1910, pp. 43-46 .
  10. ^ Sándor Ferenczi : On the ontogenesis of money interest . In: Sándor Ferenczi (ed.): Building blocks for psychoanalysis. Theory . 3rd, unchanged edition, unchanged, same-page reprint of the first edition. tape  1 . Huber, Bern, Stuttgart, Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-456-81371-6 , pp. 109–119 (Original title: Zur Ontogenie des Geldinteresses . 1927. First edition: Internationaler Psychoanalytischer Verlag, Leipzig 1914, IZ II, 1914).
  11. ↑ Ernest Jones : About Anal Erotic Character Traits . In: International journal for medical psychoanalysis . tape  5 , 1919, pp. 69-92 .
  12. ↑ Obsessive-compulsive tendency. The Germans, famous for their cleanliness, are anal fixated. This is the result of an American study on the German national character . In: Der Spiegel . No.  10 , 1985 ( online ).
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Bonß : Analytical social psychology. Notes on a theoretical concept and its empirical practice . In: Michael Kessler, Rainer Funk (ed.): Erich Fromm and the Frankfurt School . Francke Verlag, Tübingen 1992, ISBN 3-7720-1857-2 , p.  23–39 ( fromm-gesellschaft.eu [PDF; accessed April 19, 2021]).
  14. ↑ Gerrit Bartels: Why actually toilet paper? Coronavirus hamster purchases . In: Der Tagesspiegel . March 20, 2020 ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed April 20, 2021]).
  15. ↑ Wolfgang Schmidbauer : Psychology of buying toilet paper. Neat, economical, stubborn: what is true about the myth of the “anal character” of Germans? In: Psychology Today . March 24, 2020 ( psychologie-heute.de [accessed April 19, 2021]).
  16. ↑ Paul Münch (Ed.): Order, diligence and thrift. Texts and documents on the origin of the "civil virtues" . Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-423-02940-4 .
  17. ↑ a b Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 46
  18. ↑ Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 32
  19. ↑ Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 31
  20. ↑ a b Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 38
  21. ↑ Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 33
  22. ↑ a b Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 44
  23. ↑ Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 41
  24. ↑ Karl Abraham: Supplements to the doctrine of the anal character . 1923, p. 45