The Four Temperaments --Introduction

 

To My Readers: I have received several requests for a post on the Four Temperaments. This week's post is an introduction to this most important and interesting topic. I will follow-up with other posts so that by the end of 2024, I will have done some justice to presenting the Four Temperaments. 

I want to acknowledge that I take no credit for the posts on this topic. My primary sources will be from theologian Schagemann and his work entitled Manual of Self-Knowledge and Christian Perfection (1913).  Also, the work of theologian Hock The Four Temperaments (1934) will be used throughout this series of posts, with various other sources. I take absolutely no credit whatsoever for the content of this post (or the ones on this topic to follow). All I did was condense the material of these theologians into a terse post that hopefully will be advantageous for  those looking for information, but without time to read an entire book or two from the pre-Vatican II era on the subject. 

***SPECIAL NOTICE*** In addition to my workload, which has always been quite demanding, I now have to travel for some of my cases given to me this year. As I type these words, I'm going to be spending most of the week in another state, and going to several locations there. All this coupled with my duties to my family, my religious duties, and the responsibility I owe to the eleemosynary organizations which I help lead, leaves ever less time for this blog.  Indeed, I would have reduced my posts to two Mondays a month if it hadn't been for my incredibly generous and intelligent guest poster, Lee. His writing has been a godsend. Lee is also a family man, with a busy job, and religious duties. He can only do so much. Joanna From Poland is also invaluable to me. She has been an excellent guest poster, and I owe her many thanks. 

I would also be remiss if I didn't mention my former guest poster, A Simple Man, a young professional whose time was stretched so thin, he could no longer contribute. I thank him for all his hard work, and wish him only the very best. 

I am wondering if any of my readers would like to be a guest poster for this blog. It would help me tremendously in ensuring that there is one Traditionalist Catholic post published every Monday. If you:

• Are a Traditionalist Catholic who holds the sedevacantist position and the Integral Catholic Faith
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• Can contribute at least one post every two months (once a month would be ideal)

...then I hope you would consider being a guest poster. If you fit the description above and want to apply, please send me your name and email address via the comments. I promise not to publish it, and to keep your identity in strictest confidence. I will contact you with an email that protects my identity. We can communicate from there. If I feel you would be an asset to this blog, you may publish here under your name, or choose to remain completely anonymous like I do. 

There is no money or tangible benefits involved. However, you have a chance to make an incredible impact on people during this time of Great Apostasy. You may even make a convert or two! Your good works pay nothing here, but your "retirement benefits" will be (literally) out of this world! I will continue posting every Monday for as long as I can, but without additional help, I may have to (unfortunately) reduce my postings to twice a month.

God bless you all, my dear readers---Introibo

The Four Temperaments (Introduction)

The four temperaments originated thousands of years ago. Hippocrates, the first to develop the theory, defined the four temperaments according to four types of fluids of the body:

Choleric: yellow bile from the liver.

Sanguine: blood from the heart.

Melancholic: black bile from the kidneys.

Phlegmatic: phlegm from the lungs.

What, exactly, is a "temperament"? It is the disposition of human reactions, and very telling of how people should approach the spiritual life. 

One of the most reliable means of learning to know oneself is the study of the temperaments. For if a man knows and understands his temperament, he can learn easily to direct and control himself. If he is able to discern the temperament of others, he can better understand and help them. If we consider the reaction of various persons to the same experience, we will find that it is different in every one of them; it may be quick and lasting, or slow but lasting; or it may be quick but of short duration, or slow and of short duration. This manner of reaction, or the different degrees of excitability, is what we call "temperament." There are four temperaments: the choleric, the melancholic, the sanguine, and the phlegmatic.

The sanguine temperament is marked by quick but shallow, superficial excitability; the choleric by quick but strong and lasting; the melancholic temperament by slow but deep; the phlegmatic by slow but shallow excitability. The first two are also called extroverts, outgoing; the last two are introverts or reserved. Temperament, then, is a Fundamental Disposition of the soul, which manifests itself whenever an impression is made upon the mind, be that impression caused by thought -by thinking about something or by representation through the imagination -or by external stimuli. 

Knowledge of the temperament of any person supplies the answer to the questions: How does this person deport himself? How does he feel moved to action whenever something impresses him strongly? For instance, how does he react, when he is praised or rebuked, when he is offended, when he feels sympathy for or aversion against somebody? Or, to use another example, how does be act if in a storm, or in a dark forest, or on a dark night the thought of imminent danger comes to him?

The following queries should be asked:

• Is the person under the influence of such impressions, thoughts, or facts, quickly and vehemently excited, or only slowly and superficially? 
• Does the person under such influences feel inclined to act at once, quickly, in order to oppose the impression; or does he feel more inclined to remain calm and to wait? 
• Does the excitement of the soul last for a long time or only for a moment? Does the impression continue, so that at the recollection of such impression the excitement is renewed? Or does he conquer such excitement speedily and easily, so that the remembrance of it does not produce a new excitement?

The answers will be telling. The choleric person is quickly and vehemently excited by any impression made; he tends to react immediately, and the impression lasts a long time and easily induces new excitement. The person of sanguine temperament, like the choleric, is quickly and strongly excited by the slightest impression, and tends to react immediately, but the impression does not last; it soon fades away. The melancholic individual is at first only slightly excited by any impression received; a reaction does not set in at all or only after some time. But the impression remains deeply rooted, especially if new impressions of the same kind are repeated. The phlegmatic person is only slightly excited by any impression made upon him; he has scarcely any inclination to react, and the impression vanishes quickly. The choleric and sanguine temperaments are active, the melancholic and phlegmatic temperaments are passive.

The Knowledge of Temperaments is Very Important

It may be difficult in many cases to decide upon the temperament of any particular person; still we should not permit ourselves to be discouraged in the attempt to understand our own temperament and that of those persons with whom we live or with whom we come often into contact, for the advantages of such insight are very great. To know the temperaments of our fellow men helps us to understand them better, treat them more correctly, bear with them more patiently. These are evidently advantages for social life which can hardly be appreciated enough.

A choleric person is won by quiet explanation of reasons and motives; whereas by harsh commands he is embittered, hardened, driven to strong-headed resistance. A melancholic person is made suspicious and reticent by a rude word or an unfriendly mien, by continuous kind treatment, on the contrary, he is made pliable, trusting, affectionate. The choleric person can be relied upon, but with a sanguine person we can hardly count even upon his apparently serious promises. Without a knowledge of the temperaments of our fellow men we will treat them often wrongly, to their and to our own disadvantage.

With a knowledge of the temperaments, one bears with fellow men more patiently. If one knows that their defects are the consequence of their temperament, he excuses them more readily and will not so easily be excited or angered by them. He remains quiet, for instance, even if a choleric is severe, sharp-edged, impetuous, or obstinate. And if a melancholic person is slow, hesitating, undecided; if he does not speak much and even if he says awkwardly the little he has to say; or if a sanguine person is very talkative, light-minded, and frivolous; if a phlegmatic cannot be aroused from his usual indifference, he does not become irritated.

It is of the greatest benefit furthermore to recognize fully one’s own temperament. Only if one knows it, can he judge correctly himself, his moods, his peculiarities, his past life. An elderly gentleman, of wide experience in the spiritual life, who happened to read the following treatise on temperaments said: “I have never learned to know myself so well, as I find myself depicted in these lines, because nobody dared to tell me the truth so plainly as these lines have done.”

If one knows one’s own temperament, he can work out his own perfection with greater assurance, because finally the whole effort toward self-perfection consists in the perfection of the good and in the combating of the evil dispositions. Thus the choleric will have to conquer, in the first place, his obstinacy, his anger, his pride; the melancholic, his lack of courage and his dread of suffering; the sanguine, his talkativeness, his inconsistency; the phlegmatic, his sloth, his lack of energy. 

The person who knows himself will become more humble, realizing that many good traits which he considered to be virtues are merely good dispositions and the natural result of his temperament, rather than acquired virtues. Consequently, the choleric will judge more humbly of his strong will, his energy, and his fearlessness; the sanguine of his cheerfulness, of his facility to get along well with difficult persons; the melancholic will judge more humbly about his sympathy for others, about his love for solitude and prayer; the phlegmatic about his good nature and his repose of mind.

The temperament is innate in each person, therefore it cannot be exchanged for another temperament. But man can and must cultivate and perfect the good elements of his temperament and combat and eradicate the evil ones. Every temperament is in itself good and with each one man can do good and work out his salvation. It is, therefore, imprudent and ungrateful to wish to have another temperament. “All the spirits shall praise the Lord” (Ps. 150:6).

Conclusion

This brief introduction to the Four Temperaments explains what they are in general, and why it's important to know about temperaments--especially one's own. To find out your temperament, there are several online tests that are easy to take. Know your temperament. Each of the Four Temperaments will have a post dedicated to it. Temperament is distinct from personality. While personality refers to the entirety of a person’s behavior, emotions, and thought patterns, a temperament more specifically refers to our natural preferences and tendencies; it especially refers to how people react to things. Our temperament is not an excuse for our sins or flaws. When we are uncharitable to others or seem stuck in certain patterns of sin, we can’t shrug and say, “That’s just how I am,” and never try to change.

Each temperament has particular strengths and weaknesses. But the strengths can deepen, and the weaknesses can recede, all according to God's grace in us. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:9).