In the course of his clinical work in Vienna (1924-1930) and then in Berlin (1930-1933), Wilhelm Reich worked out his own techniques of psychoanalytic practice that emphasized the analysis of resistances and the structure of the character. He made his techniques public in his book, Character Analysis (1933/1945), his richest contribution to psychoanalysis. Character represents a stable, more or less rigid, organization of the libidinal economy of the person; it is at the same time submitted to the pressures of the drives and to social constraints, to gratifying or traumatic experiences, and to the repetitions or defenses that they give rise to: "Character is in the first place a mechanism of narcissistic protection."

The "character traits" that it brings together under the name of "character armor " correspond to the mechanisms used by the person to deal with the repressed. Reich described two great poles of character,...