Temperaments and their Pedagogical Treatment (Part 2 of 3)

by Charles Bruehl, D.D.

In strong contrast to the previously described choleric temperament stands the sanguine temperament. It is in practically everything the very opposite of the former. Where the former is deep, the latter is shallow; where the former is tenacious, the later is changeable; where the former is violent in its reactions, the latter is mild. Not inappropriately it might be said that the sanguine temperament is the choleric temperament transposed in a minor key. If the choleric temperament is the temperament for great enterprise, daring adventure and heroic exploit, the sanguine temperament is best suited for the ordinary walks of life and the common pursuits to which the average man is devoted. The man endowed with this temperament is of a genial and happy disposition, and is usually at peace with himself and the world. He is not devoured by any vaulting ambition, but is quite satisfied with moderate successes. He can easily adapt himself to his fellowmen, and readily adjust himself to his environment. In many ways he is a very desirable character, and he makes an excellent associate and companion, though perhaps not an absolutely reliable and loyal friend. For the ordinary occasions of life he will be preferred, though he is likely to disappoint when extraordinary emergencies arise. As he is very susceptible to external influences, the course, which his life takes depends largely on the environment into which he is thrown. Instability is his most striking characteristic. He quickly works up a fervent enthusiasm, but as quickly becomes discouraged. Intellectually he is characterized by superficiality, which often is accompanied by a certain brilliancy and facility of speech. Dr. James H. Snowden gives us a very satisfactory description of this temperament, which is that of the ordinary mortal, and hence confronts us most frequently in our dealings with men. "The sanguine temperament," he writes, "is a lively and hopeful disposition. It is marked by vivacity and effervescence, bubbling over with exuberant hopefulness and always seeing things through a rosy optimism. It looks at the bright side of objects, and has great confidence in its own views and visions. It paints its plans and prospects in the colors of the imagination, and wreathes them in rainbows. It may be correspondingly blind to the real difficulties in the way, and meet with unseen obstructions and run into disaster. It infects language, and people of this temperament are apt to speak in glowing terms, unconsciously bordering on visionary unreality. They sometimes live in a fool's paradise, and often experience a rude awakening and shock. Yet they quickly recover their resiliency and are soon dreaming new dreams. The sanguine people furnish the lively element in life; they radiate good cheer and are the optimists of the world."¹

The following characterization is from the pen of Dr. J. Lewis McIntyre: "With the sanguine, pleasure is the dominant tendency, along with great excitability, and a short duration of any mood. Sympathetic and friendly to others, but without persistence and constancy; quick to anger, but equally quick to regret; prodigal of promises, but equally ready to forget them; credulous and confident, he loves to make plans, which he soon lays aside; indulgent to the faults of others, he claims the same indulgence for his own; easy to appease, frank, open, amiable, sociable, incapable of interested calculation." ²

Pedagogical Treatment

As will easily appear from the preceding description, the sanguine temperament can be handled without great difficulty. It is amenable to discipline, provided this is not too exacting and irksome. No disturbing propensities are to be curbed, and, hence, a mild regime will answer the purpose. Love and sympathy can do wonders, since the sanguine temperament is very responsive to them. In dealing with this temperament, we must be careful not to expect too much, for the highest achievement to which it will rise is a fair level of mediocrity. Driving would only result in discouragement and resentment. Father Felix M. Kirsch, O. M. Cap., offers excellent advice on the subject: "The sanguine child is cheerful and responds most readily to the efforts of the teacher. The teacher may be playful at times in dealing with such a child, but must at the same time make him keep his place for the purpose of preventing his growing impudent and presumptuous. Nor should the teacher be severe in adjudging his offenses, for these faults are the result of thoughtlessness rather than malice. The sanguine child finds it difficult to concentrate, and the teacher must consequently remove as far as possible the occasion of distraction. The sanguine child demands that the instruction be pleasant and attractive, and welcomes sallies of humor and blackboard drawings and other didactic helps as offering a relief from the monotony of recitation periods. He is not fond of frequent reviews, but requires them if he is to make progress in his studies. Order is another thing that the teacher must insist on particularly, and that with regard to starting as well as finishing a task. Nothing should be left half-done. No new book or game should be started before the old is completed. It will require special attention to train such a child to be truthful, for with his fondness of exaggeration a habit of lying is easily formed. Another temptation of the sanguine child is his inclination to pilfer food and other things. His pockets are often a veritable curiosity shop. In her reprimands the teacher must take care so as not to offend the child's keen sense of humor. Undue severity would engender a suspicious state of mind. With proper treatment the sanguine child is the joy of the teacher and the school."³

The chief deficiency of the sanguine temperament lies in its weakness, its impressionability, and its fickleness. If these are properly offset by training, this temperament can become a valuable asset. It is essential in this case that the will be reinforced in order to counteract the instability of the mental disposition; habits of sustained attention must be acquired to act as a counterweight to the natural mobility of the mind; the sense of duty and responsibility must be cultivated to overcome the frivolity and love of pleasure that are inherent in this temperament. If a love of work can be instilled, much of the evil that lurks in the sanguine mentality can be effectually neutralized. ⁴

The Phlegmatic Temperament And How To Deal With It

In spite of the contrary opinion of one or two philosophers, the phlegmatic temperament in general is not valued very highly. In fact, to be labeled phlegmatic is almost equivalent to a moral stigma. Still, this temperament also has its uses. Especially in our days of senseless rushing and frantic haste it may serve a very useful purpose by acting as a brake on the frenzied activities of our generation. An infusion of phlegma, indeed, might be a veritable blessing to our American life, for with much show of reason it is claimed that the rate of our speed in all the departments of life is unwholesome and disastrous.

With the phlegmatic temperament we associate such adjectives as dull, slow, unsympathetic, stolid, unresponsive, cautious, impassible, cold, sluggish, unenthusiastic, unemotional, plodding, and inaccessible. Of this temperament the conservative element of a community is made up. With advancing age many, though by no means all, gradually lapse into a phlegmatic frame of mind. When the fires of youthful enthusiasm burn out, phlegmatic calm and stoic indifference frequently take the place of the erstwhile ardor. Flaming youth hates nothing more than contact with this impassive attitude of mind, which chills every noble enthusiasm and shatters all the glowing dreams and the beautiful visions born in the hearts of the young. Many a youthful ambition has been crushed by fatal contact with phlegmatic stoicism. The educator should be on his guard against this phlegma, which is likely to creep on him with the advancing years, and which will erect a wall between him and the growing generation. It is not well to spoil the fine enthusiasm of youth by ill-humor and the cold blasts of calculating reason. The stern reality of life will do that quickly enough. No one need be proud of having robbed youth of a dream or a vision before the inevitable time when disillusionment is bound to come. In educational and pastoral work the phlegmatic temperament is not particularly helpful.⁵

Dealing with the phlegmatic temperament we must resort to strong motives and endeavor to rouse the sluggish will. Almost infinite patience is required to avoid being discouraged by the seeming futility of all efforts to produce results. On account of his native inertia and love of ease, the phlegmatic individual shrinks from large tasks. We must, therefore, ask only slight exertions of him at a time, and not deter him by the prospect of much work and prolonged effort. Urging is of little use in this case. The phlegmatic person will take his time and do things his own way quite irrespective of praise or blame. Not being demonstrative in his affections, he will manifest no appreciation or gratitude for our efforts in his behalf. We must be satisfied with the consciousness of having performed our duty in his regard without expecting gratitude.⁶

The Melancholic Temperament

The melancholic temperament is practically always a disadvantage, if not a curse, to the one who is possessed of it, though it may be turned into a blessing for his fellow-beings. That is due to the heightened sensitiveness that goes with this peculiar mental type. Whereas the emotional experiences of the sanguine individual are of the pleasurable kind, those of the melancholic temperament are usually of a painful nature. Cheerfulness is a rare guest in the heart of the melancholic person, but shadows, specters and phantoms love to gather there. The melancholic temperament always sees through a dark glass, and the world never appears to it in bright hues. By reason of the predominance of the imagination and the strong emotional resonance connected with it, it is emphatically the artistic temperament. But it is also the temperament of the fanatic. Taken all in all, it is a treacherous gift. If St. John the Evangelist, Francis Thompson, Michelangelo, Dante and Shakespeare exemplify the better traits of this temperament, we must not forget that its evil features are reflected in such unfortunate persons as Saul, Judas, Byron, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Calvin and Leopardi. The melancholic individual is too self-centered and too much occupied with his own mental reactions. He is given to fits of absent-mindedness and prolonged meditations. His judgments about men and things are strongly biased by subjective considerations. His distrust of men makes him avoid society and seek solitude. Very little is required to arouse his suspicions. Obstacles quickly discourage him. He readily takes offense, and a thoughtless word can deeply wound him. His imagination magnifies everything that is related to himself, and puts it in a false perspective. His strong emotional reaction gives an undue preponderance to personal matters. Dr. J. H. Snowden's description may be accepted as authentic. It reads: "The melancholic is the deep-brooding temperament, characterized by outward passivity but inward intensity. It is given to thought and meditation, and strives to see things as they are in their inmost natures. It does not shrink from but rather is attracted to the dark side of things, and is veined and tinged with pessimism. Its deep undertone is one of sadness in view of the world. It weaves minor notes into all its chords. The people of melancholic temperament are the philosophers and prophets and poets, the thinkers and dreamers of the race."⁷ The melancholic temperament requires constant vigilance lest the germs of morbidity contained in it come to fruition. Its exaggerated tendency towards introspection must be offset by wholesome external activity. Cheerfulness and optimism must be deliberately and systematically fostered; scenes of a depressing nature should be carefully shunned. The melancholic individual ought not to focus his attention on the seamy side of life, since this would only aggravate his pessimistic views and confirm him in his misanthropic prejudices. By his fellowmen he should be treated with consideration in view of his sensitiveness. When confronted by a harsh, unsympathetic environment, he retreats into himself and becomes the prey of the most exquisite self-torture. In school, the melancholic boy often suffers unspeakable torment by the cruel jokes of his companions, who do not realize to what agonies they are subjecting their playmate. Of course, the average boy takes these experiences lightly, but by the melancholic mind they are exaggerated out of all proportion.⁸ Great kindness and sympathetic understanding are essential in dealing with the melancholic child. Austerity and sternness will alienate his affections, and severe words will sting him to the quick. He must be taught to love play, and induced to seek intercourse with cheerful companions. Luxuriating in sentiment and indulging in daydreaming in the case of the melancholic child are particularly dangerous. After all, the melancholic temperament is worth the care it demands, since it is not seldom the chrysalis of genius. But aside from that, Christian charity requires that we spare its sensitiveness the pains, which lack of sympathy would inflict.⁹

Notes

1 "The Psychology of Religion" (New York City). Buoyant optimism is inseparable from the sanguine temperament. Quite frequently, however, this optimism has no warrant in reason and reality, and, therefore, becomes a great obstacle to success. It is at times exceedingly trying to have to deal with such incurable optimists, who with the most inadequate equipment will undertake the most important tasks. We must caution against this false optimism, which is merely based on happy native endowment. Dr. David Stow Adam rightly says: "There are some people that seem always to see the sunny side of things, who are always expecting good success and rise like a cork from beneath the attempts of misfortune to depress them. To inherit a happy, hopeful, sanguine disposition is certainly a precious legacy and conduces to success in life. But the hopefulness, which is grounded merely on sanguine temperament, though not infrequently it vindicates itself in the result and proves wiser than the timidity and hesitation and pessimism of the melancholic temper, often errs by excess and turns out to be ill-grounded and disappointing... Our hope needs a surer foundation than mere sanguine temperament, if it is to be a solid and reasonable hope" ("A Handbook of Christian Ethics," Edinburgh).

2 "Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics" (New York City). The sanguine temperament often shows a fatal tendency towards cynicism. It lacks the emotion of reverence, and does not shrink from leveling the shafts of ridicule at the most sacred things. Voltaire represents especially this evil phase of the sanguine temperament.

3 "The Catholic Teacher's Companion" (New York City). The sanguine temperament is essentially that of the child and of youth. In them it is not only pardonable but even charming. But, when we encounter it in the adult, we have little patience with it. Playfulness, mischievousness, forgetfulness, shiftlessness, impulsiveness and mercurial instability are traits, which we deem incompatible with maturity. If the sanguine temperament appears in an accentuated form, it is the despair of the educator. Substantially we agree in this matter with Dr. John MacCunn, who writes: "This is the characteristic temperament of most children, to whose unpreoccupied outlook the world is so interesting a place that they cannot fix their interest for long upon anything in it. But it does not pass with childhood. It lives on in the man or woman who is so excellently fitted to be a pleasant companion and agreeable member of society, whose interests are many and quick, who does not, because he cannot, agitate or bore us by absorbing enthusiasm, who, in a word, is something of everything and everything of nothing. Such is the so-called sanguine temperament. Its strength lies in its open and ready receptiveness, and in the promise these contain of cheerful and fruitful contact with experience. Hence we like to see it in children. But then it has the defects of its virtues. It is infirm of purpose, and it has a fatal facility for skating lightly over the deeper experiences. Not only is it incapable of heroisms or devotions; it does not seem to miss them. Left to itself, it would people the world with ten-minuted emotionalists. Yet, when all is said, such are hopeful material to work upon. They come halfway to meet us. They spare us the dreary task of awakening interest where none is. And if only they can be yoked to more strenuous fellow-workers, or enlisted in the service of some great institution, or deepened by hardship and struggle, or convinced that something is expected of them, they will not fail of a creditable ending. The drawback is that they are so apt to disappoint the promise of early years. In the University it is the youth whose reputation for animated conversation, charm, general ability, is so brilliant — till the day comes when it is whispered that Pendennis of St. Boniface is plucked; in Literature it is the versatile author of unwritten books; in business, the man of many enterprises and few dividends; in industry the Jack of all trades; in life in general the man of promise who could do anything, yet has it not in him, when chance comes, to bend himself to one resolute effort. Is it to their credit or otherwise that these sanguine types nevertheless remain cheerful to the last, the one thing to which they seem unable to turn their minds being the fact, so obvious to the onlooker, that they have been tried in the balance and found wanting?" ("The Making of Character," New York City). It will throw some light on the subject, if we remember that the carefree, happy-go-lucky knight of the road is the incarnation of this type.

4 More than anyone else the sanguine individual needs the steadying and stabilizing influence of religion. Religion will give him that depth which he so sadly lacks. It also will make him take a more serious view of life and thus happily balance his natural levity. What religion can do with this temperament is exemplified in St. Peter, whose character by its influence was marvelously transformed. But where religious influences are absent, the sanguine temperament is prone to degenerate into frivolity and sensuousness. Notwithstanding the commonplace character of this temperament, we think that Dr. Franz Muszynski is entirely too severe in its condemnation when he writes as follows; "Man soll wohl die Temperamente nehmen, wie sie sind; fur meinen Teil will ich sie alle gehen lassen, den Sanguiniker aber lasse ich laufen. Und wenn ich in einem grosserem Wirkungskreise auf Mitarbeiter angewiesen ware — die Sanguiniker wurde ich, ja was wurde ich denn mit ihnen tun? Nun, ich wurde ohne sie tun, was zu tun ware" ("Die Temperamente," Paderborn). In this estimate the author is confounding a pathological condition with a temperamental disposition.

5 "The opposite of the sanguine is the phlegmatic temperament. This is a dull passive disposition, slow in its movements of thought and action. It is deficient in initiative and progressiveness and jogs along in traditional grooves. It is not easily excited with hope on the one hand, or on the other hand depressed with discouragement, but plods along with equal step through sunshine and storm. People of phlegmatic temperament furnish the ballast in the ship of progress. They are solid and immobile and give substance and stability to the world" (Dr. J. H. Snowden, op. cit.). The natural lassitude of this temperament can be overcome by indomitable will and energy, and in that case the phlegmatic individual may reach the highest peaks of human achievement. This is apparent in St. Thomas Aquinas, who, if we judge him right, was of the phlegmatic type.

6 Cfr, "Lexikon der Padagogik" (Freiburg), s.v. Phlegma. Contrary to the sanguine temperament, the phlegmatic is not easily influenced by the environment, which according to circumstances may be either a favorable or an unfavorable trait. The example of his fellowmen will not sweep him along, and he does not easily become the victim of seduction. Anent this baffling and recalcitrant temperament Dr. John MacCunn writes: "The fourth temperament, even though it be weighed with the unpromising label 'phlegmatic,' has been regarded by one writer (Lotze, Mikrokosmus) as in a sense superior to all the others. This on the ground that it is a sign of strength not to be flightily led from interest to interest like the sanguine, not to be at the mercy of moods like the melancholic, nor yet, like the choleric, to be mastered by any dominant pursuit. For is it not those natures that are slow to be moved which often astonish the world by displays of the reserved strength that has been slowly funding itself under a phlegmatic exterior? It is the very disposition in which the Englishmen are so apt to take pride when they natter themselves that they are not as their more precipitate, nighty, or sentimental neighbors. This may hold of a certain type of character; and we may believe, further, that such implies a native inertia hostile alike to hastiness of action and emotional disturbance, and still more to quick transfer of interest. It may also be conceded that that type in which there is a barrier that must be broken through before impression stirs emotion, or emotion passes into action, has strength and ability that others lack... Yet it is too wide a stretch to concede all this, which is in most cases the result of moral discipline, to temperament. Phlegmatic temperament, whatever its merits, has the demerit of a stolidity that is the despair of the educator. The other temperaments are at any rate not inaccessible. The phlegmatic subject on the other hand gives us no opening. There may be a world of wealth below the crust. But the crust is, or seems, impenetrable. The man or boy neither gives sign of what he is fit for, nor does he respond to our experiments to discover. As the proverb has it, it is not the rearing but the dead horse that is the hardest to drive. Probably the best plan is, placing our trust neither in ideas nor feelings, to weight this type as heavily as we can with practical responsibilities; and to bring him face to face with issues that will squeeze out from him such inert strength as he possesses" (op. cit.). This description is fair and true to the facts. The phlegmatic temperament has its possibilities for good, but it is difficult to bring them to actuality. Unless there is a very strong will to pitch against the temperamental lethargy, little can be done and we have to be content with a very scant harvest.

7 Op. cit. The following description also is instructive: "With the melancholic temperament, sadness is the prevailing tendency; his excitability is equal to that of the sanguine, but disagreeable sensations are both more frequent and more durable than those of pleasure. The sufferings of others call out his sympathy to a high degree; for himself he is fearful, undecided, distrustful; a trifle wounds and offends him; the slightest obstacle discourages him, and renders him incapable of reasoning to overcome it; his thoughts are full of gloom, and his sufferings appear to him beyond all consolation" (J. L. McIntyre, loc. cit.). Dr. G. Maier draws this picture: "Der Melanchiliker lasst sich die Eindrucke tief ins Gemut gehen und verarbeitet sie hier zu dauernden Stimmungen, die er schwer los wird. Was er erfahrt, zittert in seinem Gefuhle nach und wird hier nicht in seiner objectiven Bedcutung, sondern in seinem Gefuhlswert hoch und niedrig geschatzt; er ist nicht allseitig, er nimmt nur auf, was seiner Stimmung zusagt, grubelt daruber nach, schliesst sich gem in seine Gedankenwelt ein and halt sie zah fest. Man kann ihm schwer etwas recht machen. Er ist das Bild tiefen Nachdenkens, geduldiger Ergebung, anhanglicher Liebe, treuer Beharrlichkeit, aber auch Empfindlichkeit, Bedenklichkeit, des Argwohns, der Tadelsucht, der Neigung zur Einsamkeit und Schwermut ("Padagogische Psychologie," Gotha).

8 Francis Thompson thus depicts his school day woes: "The malignity of my tormentors was more heart-lacerating than the pain itself. It seemed to me — virginal to the world's ferocity — a hideous thing that strangers should dislike roc, should delight and triumph in pain to me, though I had done them no ill and bore them no malice; that malice should be without provocative malice. That seemed to me dreadful, and a veritable demoniac revelation. Fresh from my tender home, and my circle of just-judging friends, these malignant schoolmates who danced round me with mocking laughter, were to me devilish apparitions of a hate now first known; hate for hate’s sake, cruelty for cruelty’s sake. And as such they live in my memory, testimonies to the murky aboriginal demon in man" (Everard Meynell, "The Life of Francis Thompson," New York City). Yet, there was in all this nothing more than the ordinary pranks which schoolboys are fond of playing on a newcomer.

9 Of the dangers and the treatment of the melancholic temperament Dr. J. MacCunn says: "Sentamentality may become the keynote; and emotion which, in less one-sided natures, is the prelude to active expression, comes to be valued so much for its own sake that it quenches the practical impulses it ought to have vitalized… All that is needful is that these possible victims of sensibility should be thrown betimes into cheerful and manly companionship, there to be fed upon healthy outward interests whenever their susceptibilities offer an opening; and that they should be reared in homes where energetic, active interests get their due. Not that the spirit should be quenched. For the melancholic nature has a promise of its own, and much may be done for it, if its emotions find worthy and not maudlin or melodramatic objects. So nurtured, it begets the tender and sympathetic heart. This, however is no light task; and the melancholic subject will stand in need of watchful and discriminative tendance, where its sanguine counterpart may often be safely left to shift for itself" (op. cit.).

© Ignatius Press, 2515 McAllister Street, San Francisco, CA. 94118.

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See also: Differences of Temperament

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