Temperament

Temperament can denote a moderation or unification of otherwise disperate forces, a tempering or concession of opposing influences, an overall coloration or tuning, a kind of thematization of the whole, a uniformity of the diverse. One's temperament is that which places a signature or thumbprint on each of one's actions, making it recognizably one's own.

Freud proclaimed that a force called Eros drives us all from within. But many centuries earlier Hippocrates believed there to be at least four different types of personalities in which he labeled choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic and sanguine. This idea that people can have fundamentally different personalities was adopted in this century by Carl Jung. He identified at least sixteen basic personality types and four basic temperaments in people.

· The Dionysian Temperament (ISTP, ESTP, ISFP, ESFP)

· The Epimethean Temperament (ISFJ, ESFJ, ISTJ, ESTJ)

· The Promethean Temperament (INTP, ENTP, INTJ, ENTJ)

· The Apollonian Temperament (INFJ, ENFJ, INFP, ENFP)

Four Greek gods, all of whom Zeus commisioned to make man more like the gods, represent the temperaments quite accurately, albeit metaphorically. These are Apollo, Dionysus, Prometheus, and his brother Epimetheus. Myth has it that Apollo was commisioned to give man a sense of spirit, Dionysus to teach man joy, Prometheus to give man science, and Epimetheus to convey a sense of duty. It will clarify things to name the four temperaments after gods because each god - and each temperament - has its followers. Who worships Apollo (spirit) does not worship Prometheus (science) and who desires joy (or release) is not content with Epimethean duty. We see that the four temperaments are different from each other in very fundamental ways.

Very simply, temperament determines behaviour because behaviour is the instrument for getting us what we must have, satisfying our desire for that one thing we live for. The god (or temperament) we were born to has left each of us a hunger that must be fed daily. Sisiphus was punished by Zeus so that he had to push an enormous rock to the top of a mountain, only to have it roll to the bottom while he rested. In a sense we are all Sisiphus. Today we satisfy our hunger for powers, or status, or freedom, or meaning - whatever our temperament dictates - but find that tomorrow we must do it over again. Yesterday's achievment will not do.

David Keirsey & Marilyn Bates - Please understand me - The four temperaments