The Four Temperaments:
sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic

WE all have an intuitive awareness that there are different "types" of people. This one's "an outgoing fellow"; that one's "the quiet type." This one's better off working with his hands while another excels at bookish pursuits. One sort of person is a leader; another sort is a follower. These basic dispositions, or manners of thinking, behaving, and reacting, are called "temperaments" -- a word whose etymology reflects humorist theory: it derives from the Latin temperamentum, which refers to "proper mixture."


Humorism asserts that each person is born with a basic temperament as determined by which of the four humors tends to predominate in the individual. As we all produce each humor, there will be varying degrees of influence by each, but the effects of one is usually more evident. In some people, the next most influential humor might be quite strong so that such a person can be generally described as having a combined temperament; in others, the most abundant humor dominates the others such that there is no question at all as to which category he falls into.

An exaggerated way of understanding the four temperaments is to consider four people who see a star fall to earth. The Sanguine talks about it animatedly to all present; the Choleric wants to form an expedition to find it and analyze it; the Melancholic ponders what it means and how he feels about it; and the Phlegmatic waits for the others to decide what to do as whatever decision they make is fine by him. It's kind of fun to analyze friends -- and characters we see in movies, too -- in terms of these four temperaments. Consider "The Wizard of Oz" with its Sanguine Cowardly Lion, Choleric Scarecrow, Melancholic Tin Man, and Phlegmatic Dorothy. Or "A Streetcar Named Desire" with its Sanguine Mitch, Choleric Stanley, Melancholic Blanche DuBois, and Phlegmatic Stella.

See the temperament test to discover your dominant classic temperament and to learn more about your fundamental dispositions, your bright side, your dark side, and some things you need to know in order to make the best of who you are.

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Websites and Resources

 The Four Temperaments -

The Transformed Soul: The Four Temperaments, by Dr. Ekstrand


The Four Temperaments, by Antonio Royo Marin, O.P.


The Four Temperaments and the Spiritual Life, "Know yourself." by Rev. Conrad Hock


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