Considering the impact of diet on physical, mental, and aesthetic well-being, the author sought to create a comprehensive picture of Dietetics - the art of living - through four books. However, as he wrote, it became clear that something important w...
What we are researching: When did the doctrine of temperament arise and what did it mean?
What's new: What difficulties exist today with the concept of "temperament", and why?
What we will learn: What approach, according to expert Ilyin, will help us understand what temperament is?
1. The doctrine of temperaments has received the greatest fame. According to Hippocrates, the basis of the human body is four juices: mucus (produced in the brain), blood (produced in the heart), yellow bile (from the liver), and black bile (from the spleen). Differences in the juices in different people also explain differences in morals, and the predominance of one of them determines a human's temperament. The predominance of blood is the basis of the sanguine temperament (from the Latin sanquis - blood), mucus - phlegmatic (from the Greek phlegma - mucus), yellow bile - choleric (from the Greek chole - bile), black bile - melancholic (from the Greek melaina chole - black bile) (Zhdan A.N. 1990) [1].
2. History of the concept of temperament. Due to the established stereotype of Western civilization in psychology and public opinion, temperament is understood into four types - choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic, and melancholic. The basis for the doctrine of temperament was fully developed by the school of Kos and, in particular, Polybus, a student and son-in-law of Hippocrates in the 4th century BC [2]. The essence of his teaching consisted of different "krasis" (from ancient Greek - mixing) of bodily fluids (juices) in a person: mucus, blood, yellow and black bile. Each of the "juices", in his opinion, had its properties: mucus - cold, blood - heat, yellow bile - dryness, black bile - moisture. Based on the different ratios of mucus, blood, yellow, and black bile, Polybus identified four types of their mixture. According to Polybus, the predominance of one or another fluid in the human body determines the psychical state and predisposition to certain diseases [2, 3].
3. Temperament - what is it? The term "temperament" itself is associated with ancient Roman doctors. Several centuries later, they renamed "crasis" to the Latin word temperamentum ("proper ratio of parts, proportionality"), which we know as temperament. In the 2nd century AD, the ancient Roman physician Galen, based on the teachings of Polybus, developed his teaching on temperament types. He classified 13 types of temperament, including the four above. Further, in the 5th century AD, the Roman physician Aetius identified and described only four types of temperament, which are traditionally and to this day considered Hippocratic, although the authorship belongs to Polybus [1, 2, 3].
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4. Modern understanding of temperament. Since then, up until our century, scientists from different countries have proposed many different theories of temperament. Russian expert Ilyin E.P. * in his book "Psychology of Individual Differences" made a quick review, analysis, and also an assessment of modern theories of temperaments of Western and Soviet-Russian psychology. He concluded that scientists could not create a single concept of temperament and its types, despite all their efforts.
![Further, in the 5th century AD, the Roman physician Aetius identified and described only four types of temperament, which are traditionally and to this day considered Hippocratic, although the authorship belongs to Polybus [1, 2, 3]](https://img.wattpad.com/36ed772b4daff23c4d989ab4eedba44ef27f6739/68747470733a2f2f73332e616d617a6f6e6177732e636f6d2f776174747061642d6d656469612d736572766963652f53746f7279496d6167652f396955616b5a6a364e716a374f673d3d2d313439333438363932392e313830363337643266313136306339353239303632303434333533362e6a7067?s=fit&w=720&h=720)
