There are four key temperaments. The Phlegmatic, The Sanguine, The Choleric and the Melancholic types. Historically, philosophers have attempted to explain personality psychology by describing the temperament of an individual.
Do you have a more careful approach to life?
Do you tend to have a more free-spirited and positive outlook on life?
Are you more focused on control or freedom?
These are all questions that can be explained by the temperaments.
The Temperaments Explained
The temperaments say nothing about how we really feel or what we really want in life, but they do explain a lot about how we try to handle our emotions and what we do in order to get what we want out of life. In a way, the temperaments describe our comfort zone.
What do we do in order to get a feeling of control of our lives, and how do we handle life? When life becomes too overwhelming, the phlegmatic types become focused on self control and inner mastery, and the cholerics go outside and become more dominant and authoritative.
The temperaments describe forms of self-soothing strategies. The Melancholic type tends to believe that if they can only sit with their negative feelings and work through it carefully and escape the stress of modern life, they will start to feel better later. The Sanguine type would instead say that if they kept themselves busy with more fun and easy things in life, their negative feelings and anxiety will disappear.
What are the four temperaments?
The stoic types are all about self-control and self-mastery. Sometimes referred to as the Phlegmatic types, these types see their passion and enthusiasm as something that has to be controlled and directed towards a specific goal. Stoics seek to be in full control of themselves and their emotions. They control their actions and words carefully.
Melancholic types are primarily focused on unlocking their own inner potential. As a Melancholic, you seek to explain and address why there is suffering and pain in the world and see how you can adjust to the sometimes harsh circumstances of the world we are brought up in. While melancholic types can be seen to be more negative,
As a sanguine person, your goal tends to be on living a free life without any inhibitions. Sanguine types keep an open mind above all and most of all are attracted to the ideal of freedom. While sometimes referred to as Sanguine, I believe the term existentialist applies better, as the existentialist type celebrates life and seeks to keep an open and positive mind to any situation.
The choleric person seeks to master and control the world around it. In many ways, the choleric is a true modernist, and a person who seeks to make the world around it adhere to law and order. You want the world to make sense and to operate according to certain principles, depending on what you believe will make the world a better place.
