Four Temperaments: Sanguine, Phlegmatic, Choleric, and Melancholic Personality Types

Today, there is no shortage of personality type theories, and our pages on personality typesand tests are among the most popular pages on this site. This article is about one of the oldest personality type systems in the world — the four temperaments model.

The origins of this typology belong to Graeco-Arabic medicine, where it was successfully used to treat illnesses. In fact, it is still used today by practitioners of traditional medicine around the world.

Humorism, an ancient medical concept, is at the heart of this typology. Humors here refer to fluids that are present within one’s body.

Different people have different proportions of these fluids; the predominance of one fluid defines one’s temperament and psychological type.

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For example, the predominance of a phlegm humor corresponds to a Phlegmatic personality type.