Defects Of Character

There is a key distinction between defects of character and the survival traits of The Laundry List. Adult children readily identify with the survival traits; however, they struggle with claiming defects of character.

This passage establishes the foundational ACA distinction: survival traits (adaptive, recognized) differ categorically from defects of character (shameful, resisted), with the former candidates for integration and the latter for removal.

INC , ACA WSO, ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, 2012thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

In Step Seven, we realize we cannot remove our shortcomings without the help of a Higher Power. We rely upon God to remove our defects of character. We humbly ask God, as we understand God, to remove our shortcomings.

This passage articulates the theological-psychological mechanism of Step Seven, framing defects of character as conditions requiring divine intervention and distinguishing them from survival traits amenable to integration.

Organization, Adult Children of Alcoholics World Service, The twelve steps of adult children steps workbook, 2007thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

We may have had moments of freedom from our defects, but they seem to return or take on a new form if we fail to ask for God’s intervention. To our horror, we see a defect reappear in a new obsession or new twist that is torturous to face alone.

The passage describes the tenacious, shape-shifting quality of character defects, arguing that their recurrence in new forms necessitates spiritual rather than merely volitional removal.

INC , ACA WSO, ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, 2012thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

The words ‘entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character’ does not mean that all character defects will be taken away as the compulsion to drink was. In reality removal of defects of character will take time so the person in recovery may have to be content with gradual improvement.

McCabe reads Step Six through a Jungian lens, insisting that defect removal is a slow, ego-deflating process aligned with individuation rather than a sudden grace, and that the ego’s resistance persists to the end.

McCabe, Ian, Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous: The Twelve Steps as a Spiritual Journey of Individuation, 2015thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Within the twelve-step treatment community, these two issues are often categorized under the rubric of relapse prevention and the removal of character defects. AA and other twelve-step programs have long recognized that if healthy sobriety is to be achieved and maintained, it requires the alleviation, modification, or removal of personality characteristics that are incompatible with recovery.

Flores situates the removal of character defects within clinical late-stage treatment, linking it to characterological change and arguing it is structurally necessary for sustained recovery, not merely a spiritual exercise.

Flores, Philip J, Group Psychotherapy with Addicted Populations An, 1997thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

The tree also shows the distinction between the traits which are learned in childhood and the defects of character that develop later in life. The Laundry List Traits represent the limbs while the character defects are the fruit.

The ACA Laundry List Tree metaphor spatially encodes the developmental ontology of character defects: they are sequelae of childhood survival traits, not their equivalents, and therefore require a distinct therapeutic approach.

Organization, Adult Children of Alcoholics World Service, The twelve steps of adult children steps workbook, 2007thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Part of the process of becoming entirely ready is to feel the painful consequence from my character defects. As long as I was rationalizing and blaming others for my problems, I had no motivation to change.

This passage frames the readiness to relinquish character defects as contingent on the experience of their painful consequences, positioning accountability as the psychological prerequisite for Step Six.

INC , ACA WSO, ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, 2012thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

For years, in meetings, I struggled with my survival behavior thinking it was a defect of character. In reality my survival traits were deeply rooted friends. They were no longer useful, but they had protected me.

A first-person account distinguishes the phenomenological experience of survival traits from genuine character defects, illustrating how misclassification impedes recovery and why integration differs from removal.

Organization, Adult Children of Alcoholics World Service, The twelve steps of adult children steps workbook, 2007supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

In order to make progress it is necessary to become conscious of any fears, resentments, and character flaws so as to remedy, purge, or even tolerate them. They can be put under the normal human failings of the seven deadly sins of pride, greed, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth.

McCabe maps AA’s character-defect inventory onto the traditional schema of the seven deadly sins, connecting the Twelve Step moral psychology to a classical typology of vice and its role in shadow consciousness.

McCabe, Ian, Carl Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous: The Twelve Steps as a Spiritual Journey of Individuation, 2015supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

On the right-hand side, write ‘defects of character’ or ‘ineffectual behaviors.’ As the sponsee talks during the Fifth Step, write down positive behavio

The Sixth Step List instructions operationalize defects of character as ‘ineffectual behaviors,’ pairing them with assets in a structured moral inventory that translates inner recognition into actionable categories.

Organization, Adult Children of Alcoholics World Service, The twelve steps of adult children steps workbook, 2007supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

In character disorder there is hidden illness in the intact personality. Character disorders in some way and to some degree actively involve society.

Winnicott reframes character pathology as concealed illness inhabiting an apparently functional self, emphasizing that character disorder is partly constituted through the social environment’s response rather than residing solely in the individual.

Winnicott, Donald, The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment, 1965supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Therapy of character disorder has three aims: A dissection down to the illness that is hidden and that appears in the character distortion. Preparatory to this may be a period in which the individual is invited to become ill instead of hiding illness.

Winnicott outlines a clinical strategy for character disorder in which the therapeutic goal is first to make the hidden illness visible—allowing genuine illness rather than its disguise—before analytic work can address the underlying distortion.

Winnicott, Donald, The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment, 1965supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

If sins are your only qualities, you may be without morals, but not without character. Therefore, a person of character will not necessarily be a moral exemplar. Nor will a bundle of reprehensible sins define a bad character.

Hillman argues from an archetypal standpoint that moral failings do not constitute a deficient character; character is constituted by distinguishing qualities rather than by virtue, dissolving the moralistic equation of defect with bad character.

Hillman, James, The Force of Character: And the Lasting Life, 1999supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

Without help, our toxic shame from the past will find a way to express itself in our adult lives no matter how perfect we act and no matter how hard we try to control ourselves or others.

The passage links the persistence of character defects to unconscious toxic shame, arguing that volitional self-management is insufficient and that humility and spiritual surrender are the only effective countermeasures.

INC , ACA WSO, ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, 2012supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

We must balance taking responsibility for misdeeds committed as an adult with the knowledge that our mistakes probably have their origin in the abuse we endured as children. We seek balance.

This passage frames the ethical complexity of defects of character in adult children: acknowledging adult responsibility without erasing the developmental origins of harmful behavior in childhood abuse.

INC , ACA WSO, ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILIES, 2012supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

It is not only at one particular period of his life that a person’s character is dependent upon the general position of his libido; that dependence exists at every age.

Abraham situates character formation and its involutions within libido theory, suggesting that what appears as character defect may be an expression of psychosexual regression rather than a fixed moral failing.

Abraham, Karl, Selected Papers on Psychoanalysis, 1927aside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

This fixed characterological view, personality conceived through heredity, disposition, virtues and vices, is less to be found in personality theory and psychopathology today.

Hillman observes that the classical conception of character as stable traits—virtues and vices included—has been displaced by dynamic and behavioral models, contextualizing why the notion of ‘defects of character’ sits uneasily in modern psychology.

Hillman, James, Senex & Puer, 2015aside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →