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The four temperaments


Queen of Spades

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Here I am,an humble first year medical student, to explain to you the fine theory's origine that is the Four Temperaments'one.

 

Let's start by Humorism. It was a system of medicine detailing the workings of the human body, adopted originally by Ancien Greek philsophers. The theory holded that our human body was filled with four basic substances, called humors, which are in balance when a person is healthy. Diseases and disabilities were supposedly resulted from an excess or a deficit of one of these humors.

These 4 humors are :

  • Blood.  
  • Yellow bile
  • Black Bile
  • Phlegm

Hippocrates, the founder of Humorism, added to these humors their corresponding elements, seasons, sites of formation, and resulting temperament.

So we got on the following :

  • Blood :
    • Season : Spring
    • Element : Air
    • Organ : Liver
    • Qualities : Warm and Moist
    • Temperament : Sanguine
  • Yellow bile
    • Season : Summer
    • Element : Fire
    • Organ : GallBider
    • Qualities : Warm and Dry
    • Temperament : Choleric
  • Black Bile
    • Season : Automn
    • Element : Earth
    • Organ : Spleen
    • Qualities : Cold and Dry
    • Temperament : Melancholic
  • Phlegm
    • Season : Winter
    • Element : Water
    • Organ : Brain
    • Qualities : Cold and Moist
    • Temperament : Phelgmatic

Doctors believed that too much or too little of any of one of these four distinct humors directly influenced the temperament and the health of the individual: therefore, the humoralist system is highly individualistic. Each patient was made up of their own unique combination of humors and in fine, their own temperament:

 

Finally, I will describe the temperaments:

  • A sanguine person is friendly, talkative, encouraging. They like to be noticed by others and to have fun, but they tend to forget things they are supposed to do. If they feel that they are not appreciated, they can become depressed. They tend to lose interest in new hobbies as soon as it is no longer a fun thing to do.
  • A choleric is a bossy and ambitious person. They tend to be good leaders.They can be bossy to people of the other temperaments. They are able to make good plans and do things well by not losing interest.
  • A melancholic  is a thinker and perfectionnist. They tend to prefer to spend time alone instead of being in social situations. They go by a schedule and are truthful  They might suffer in silence and not complain. They are able to do things for themselves. Melancholics can be creative in artistic areas such as poetry and music
  • A phlegmatic is a quiet, kind and peaceful person. They like giving and receiving affection, although they might be shy. They can be content to go along with situations as they are, instead of trying to change them. They may tend to be relaxed, lazy and not have a lot of energy.

Here you go ! You can thank Wikipedia and my human science teacher :D

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9 hours ago, sarcastic kitten said:

A sanguine person is friendly, talkative, encouraging. They like to be noticed by others and to have fun, but they tend to forget things they are supposed to do. If they feel that they are not appreciated, they can become depressed. They tend to lose interest in new hobbies as soon as it is no longer a fun thing to do.

This is definately me #1 :)

I could see myself as a little Phlegmatic too, though my Extrovertedness makes this a smaller part of my personality

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9 minutes ago, NullVector said:

 

One of the questions on the test is: "I daydream about being in love." xD 

 

Yeah, great question for aromantics /XD

 

I'm phlegmatic-melancholic~

 

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7 hours ago, NullVector said:

 

http://personality-testing.info/tests/O4TS/ 

(At the end of the test, it says you need to take a survey to get your results, but you actually don't need to. Odd O.o

'I radiate joy'.... wut O.o ?!

Seriously, I spent all the test wanting to know where the hell those questions could come fromxD

 

And I'm apparently a Melancholic-Choleric .... Well.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

In my country it's very popular to categorize people into these four temperaments when exploring group dynamics and communication. But they rename them by colors.

sanguine

choleric

melancholic 

phlegmatic

 

Green is the most common. Yellow and blue often don't mix well. I find it to be a very useful categorization, of course most people are several categories though. I'm very red myself.

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