ABSTRACT
The most fundamental division among the diverse explanations contrasts inherent qualities, present at birth and operating throughout life, with a history of experiences. Galen, an extraordinarily perceptive second-century physician born in Asia Minor, elaborated these Hippocratic ideas by positing nine temperamental types that were derived from the four humors. A major change in nineteenth-century essays on temperament was a focus on the biology of brain tissue and a search for visible signs of that biology somewhere on the surface of the body. All temperamental ideas, which had enjoyed the support of professors, presidents, and corporation executives during the early part of the century, were forced underground for several decades. The suppression of temperamental forces is made a bit easier by a new trend that celebrates surprising scientific discoveries before their validity has been established. Finally, remnants of the Greek partition of soul and body contribute to an unspoken indifference to temperament.
