Representation of the Impulsive Temperament in Arts, Literature and Science: From the Middle Ages to the Present

In this contribution, we intend to review the way in which personality is typified and represented through the centuries in arts, literature, and science. The scope ranges from primitive paintings in the Middle Ages to reports made by means of questionnaires developed by psychological scientists. During the centuries, the leadership temperament has been shifted from the choleric toward the sanguine temperament. The resulting extraverted character and personality have come into the picture and thus, have raised new problems for explication and interpretation. Further, there is a remarkable similarity between the medieval representation of the four temperaments and trait dimensions in recent neurophysiological and biological research. In contrast, the questionnaires show a stepwise development of increasing negligence of elements of the impulsive personality, or, in medieval terms, the choleric temperament. This tendency in mainstream personality test design is criticized by some researchers. In this article, we suggest that this development is caused by a romantic hankering after an ideal of leadership. There is a symbolic layer in the verbal reasoning through which the steps to impulsivity-free personality representations have been made. Surprisingly, this tendency is absent in a personality representation derived from adjectives in the English language. Finally, we raise the question of whether it is sensible to shut our eyes for the presence of the choleric temperament in our contemporary society.