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Doktor Humbrol and Great Aunt Dymphna as actual personas, eh? *Verzy innterrestink. *But shtupid! 
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Stupid eh? Tell that to poor old Frau Von Humbrol who stills lives a blameless life in Berne even today.
Professor Lawson is partially right in his theory of projection, but not in relation to the Good Herr Doktor. If only he had related this thought to modelling. I think there is some truth that the modeller projects aspects of his personality into his/her models. No I don't mean big model = small etc etc, but that the models we choose to build reflect something of the way we deal with the world. It reflects our creativity, as you say Pete, your current lack of patience, my competitive nature, etc etc. we can't help this its just what we do.
Even the dread disease AMS is more or less a personality reflection as well as a (slight) misuse of ofttimes great skills.
The Institute and its personnel exists as a way to explore some interesting questions in modelling (And I don't mean that scarlett woman Dymphna).
Now to habits: We at the Institute have found habits to fall into a number of broad categories:
1) Functional habits: these enable the modeller to be productive and sometimes efficient in his build routine, enabling the completion of a satisfactory number of subjects, leading to satisfaction of whatever needs lead her/him to make models in the first place.
2) Overt Dysfunctional habits. Most of us have these to one degree or another. These may be concrete such as not holding the scriber in a way that gives us the best results, to adopting a particular build sequence cos we like it, to a tried and true way of doing things that we like but may not be the optimium way of doing things. It may relate to emotional habits such as a low frustration tolerance leading us to rush things and build at less than our best.
3) Covert Dysfunctional habits. Most of us have these too. These are habits, routines that appear functional but in fact are not. AMS may be a covert dysfunctional habit before we become paralysed by it. We want to build our best with as much detail as possible in order to do the best job possible. After awhile this becomes fetishized (not fetishes like PETA models for example) behaviour with the detail becoming an end itself rather than the means to an end, which it properly should be.
4) Creative Habits. This relates to allowing our creativity being led down well worn paths we have been down before. Some may find this controversial or confronting but it means building regularly the same type of models that exercise the same discrete skills to the detriment of developing new ones. I.e. theme building without a unifying principle behind the theme. Building outside the comfort zone can be good for all of us at some time.
There are others too that can be discussed here (such as CMAS) but it is tea break here at The Institute and I always like to have a cuppa and a digestive biscuit with Matron as it were.
All the Best
Neil
Glencoe Institute
(usual blurbs)