Four temperaments

Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 BC) described the four temperaments as part of the ancient medical concept of humourism, that four bodily fluids affect human personality traits and behaviours.

It may have originated in Mesopotamia,[5] but it was Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BC) (and later Galen) who developed it into a medical theory.

He believed that certain human moods, emotions, and behaviours were caused by an excess or lack of body fluids (called "humours"), which he classified as blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm,[3] each of which was responsible for different patterns in personalities, as well as how susceptible one was to getting a disease.

Galen (AD 129 – c. 200) developed the first typology of temperament in his dissertation De temperamentis, and searched for physiological reasons for different behaviours in humans.

Some physicians did this by regulating a patient's diet, while some used remedies such as phlebotomy and purges to get rid of excess blood.

Persian[13] polymath Avicenna (980–1037 AD) extended the theory of temperaments in his Canon of Medicine, which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities.

He applied them to "emotional aspects, mental capacity, moral attitudes, self-awareness, movements and dreams.

"[14] Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654) suggested that the humors acted as governing principles in bodily health, with astrological correspondences,[15] and explained their influence upon physiognomy and personality.

Hans Eysenck (1916–1997) was one of the first psychologists to analyse personality differences using a psycho-statistical method called factor analysis, and his research led him to believe that temperament is biologically based.

[19] Other researchers developed similar systems, many of which did not use the ancient temperament names, and several paired extraversion with a different factor which would determine relationship and task-orientation.

Jung's Psychological Types surveys the historical literature of the 'four humors' and related discussions extensively and in depth and proposes a psychoanalytic integration of the material.

[29] Paul Hindemith's Theme and Four Variations for string orchestra and piano is also known as The Four Temperaments: although originally conceived as a ballet for Léonide Massine,[30][31] the score was ultimately completed as a commission for George Balanchine, who subsequently choreographed it as a neoclassical ballet, using the theory of the temperaments as a point of departure.