Four humours
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This is an article about humours in Greco-Roman medicine. For humours in Ayurvedic medicine, see Humors (Ayurveda)In traditional medicine practiced in
Greco-Roman civilization and in
Europe during the
Middle Ages (at least until the
Renaissance),
humorism, or
humoralism, dictated that the four humours were special
fluids associated with the four basic elements of nature, that were thought to permeate the body and influence its health. An imbalance in the distribution of these fluids was thought to affect each individual's personality. The concept was developed by ancient Greek thinkers around
400 BC and was directly linked with another popular theory of the
four elements (
Empedocles). Paired qualities were associated with each humour and its
season.
The four humours, their corresponding elements, seasons and sites of formation, and resulting temperaments alongside their modern equivalents are:
It is believed that
Hippocrates was the one who applied this idea to medicine. "Humoralism" or the doctrine of the Four Temperaments as a medical theory retained its popularity for centuries largely through the influence of the writings of
Galen (
131-
201 AD) and was decisively displaced only in
1858 by
Rudolf Virchow's newly-published theories of
cellular pathology. While Galen thought that humours were formed in the body, rather than ingested, he believed that different
foods had varying potential to be acted upon by the body to produce different humours. Warm foods, for example, tended to produce yellow bile, while cold foods tended to produce phlegm. Seasons of the year, periods of
life,
geographic regions and
occupations also influenced the nature of the humours formed.
The imbalance of humours, or "
dyscrasia", was thought to be the direct cause of all
diseases. Health was associated with a balance of humours, or
eucrasia. The qualities of the humours, in turn, influenced the nature of the diseases they caused. Yellow bile caused warm diseases and phlegm caused cold diseases.
In
On the Temperaments Galen further emphasized the importance of the qualities. An ideal
temperament involved a balanced mixture of the four qualities. Galen identified four temperaments in which one of the qualities, warm, cold, moist and dry, predominated and four more in which a combination of two, warm and moist, warm and dry, cold and dry and cold and moist, dominated. These last four, named for the humours with which they were associatedâ€"that is,
sanguine,
choleric,
melancholic and
phlegmatic, eventually became better known than the others. While the term "temperament" came to refer just to
psychological dispositions, Galen used it to refer to bodily dispositions, which determined a person's susceptibility to particular diseases as well as behavioural and emotional inclinations.
|
The four temperaments (Clockwise from top right; choleric; melancholic; sanguine; phlegmatic). |
Sanguine indicates the personality of an individual with the temperament of
blood, the season of spring (wet and hot), and the element of air. A person who is sanguine is generally optimistic, cheerful, even-tempered, confident, rational, popular, and fun-loving. They can be daydreamy to the point of not accomplishing anything and impulsive, acting on whims in an unpredictable fashion. This also describes the
manic phase of a
bipolar disorder.
Choleric corresponds to the fluid of yellow
bile, the season of summer (dry and hot), and the element of
fire. A person who is choleric is a doer and a leader. Many great charismatic, military and political figures were cholerics. On the negative side, they are easily angered or bad tempered.
In folk medicine, a baby referred to as "cholic" is one who cries frequently and seems to be constantly angry. This is an adaptation of "choleric," although no one now would attribute the condition to bile. Similarly, a person described as "bilious" is mean-spirited, suspicious, and angry. This, again, is an adaptation of the old
humour theory "choleric."
The disease
Cholera gained its name from choler (bile).
Melancholic is the personality of an individual characterized by black
bile; hence (
Greek μελας,
melas, "black", + χολη,
kholé, "bile"); a person who was a thoughtful ponderer had a
melancholic disposition. Often very kind and considerate, melancholics can be highly creative - as in poets and artists - but also can become overly obsessed on the tragedy and cruelty in the world, thus becoming depressed. It also indicates the season of autumn (dry and cold) and the element of earth. A
mellancholy is also often a perfectionist, being very particular about what they want and how they want it in some cases. This often results in being unsatisfied with one's own artistic or creative works, always pointing out to themselves what could and should be improved.
This temperament describes the
depressed phase of a
bipolar disorder.
A
phlegmatic person is calm and unemotional.
Phlegmatic means pertaining to
phlegm, corresponds to the season of winter (wet and cold), and connotes the element of water.
While phlegmatics are generally self-content and kind, their shy personality can often inhibit enthusiasm in others and make themselves lazy and resistant to change. They are very consistent, relaxed, and observant, making them good administrators and diplomats. Like the
sanguine personality, the phlegmatic has many friends. But the phlegmatic is more reliable and compassionate; these characteristics typically make the phlegmatic a more dependable friend.
Within an individual, the phlegmatic personality is considered to be compatible with the
sanguine and
melancholic traits -- the
melancholic personality is too perfectionist, and the
choleric is too controlling. Combinations of two incompatible traits may be evidence of
masking.
When the theory of the temperaments was on the wane, many critics dropped the phlegmatic, or defined it purely negatively as the absence of temperament. This, however, made it available for the
German philosopher Immanuel Kant to reclaim as the temperament appropriate to freedom and virtue. In five-temperament theory, the classical Phlegmatic temperament is in fact deemed to be a neutral temperament, whereas the "people-liking introvert" position traditionally held by the Phlegmatic is declared to be a new "fifth temperament"
Methods of treatment like
blood letting,
emetics and purges were aimed at expelling a harmful surplus of a humour. They were still in the mainstream of
American medicine after the
Civil War. Other methods used herbs and foods associated with a particular humour to counter symptoms of disease, for instance: people who had a fever and were sweating were considered hot and wet and therefore given substances associated with cold and dry.
There are still remnants of the theory of the four humours in the current medical language. For example, we refer to
humoral immunity or humoral regulation to mean substances like
hormones and
antibodies that are circulated throughout the body, or use the term
blood dyscrasia to refer to any
blood disease or abnormality. The associated food classification survives in some apparently illogical adjectives that are still used for food, as when we call some spices
hot and some wine
dry. When the
chilli was first introduced to Europe in the sixteenth century, dieticians disputed whether it was hot or cold.
The theory was a modest advance over the previous views on human health that tried to explain in terms of the divine. Since then practitioners have started to look for natural causes of disease and to provide natural treatments.
A few psychologists use the four-temperament model even today, some also recognizing twelve mixtures of the four temperaments: Mel-Chlor, Chlor-San, San-Phleg, Phleg-Mel, Mel-San, Chlor-Phleg; and the reverse of these: Chlor-Mel, San-Chlor, Phleg-San, Mel-Phleg, San-Mel, and Phleg-Chlor. These represent people who have the traits of two temperaments. The order of temperaments in these pairs was based on which temperament was the "dominant" one (this is usually expressed by
percentages). A person can also be a blend of three temperaments.
In
Steiner (Waldorf) education and
anthroposophy, the temperaments are used to help understand personality. They are seen as avenues into teaching, with many different types of blends, which can be utilized to help with both discipline and defining the methods used with individual children and class balance.The
Unani school of Indian medicine, still apparently practiced in
India, is very similar to Galenic medicine in its emphasis on the four humours, and in treatments based on controlling intake, general environment, and the use of purging as a way of relieving humoral imbalances.
*
Disposition*
Humor theory*
Medieval medicine*
Five Temperaments*
The four classic temperaments and spirituality*
The four temperaments online test*
Ancient Medicine:Myth and Practice*
Discovering Our Potential: An Introduction to Character Types*
Temperaments in a Nutshell
