Temperaments, melancholy and mania

The temperament has strongly reappeared on the scene of contemporary psychiatry, regaining the spotlights, for the lucky idea of Akiskal to take back the Kraepeklinian conception of fundamental states (Grundzustände), but using the classical term of temperament. There is not only a continuity in the use of the terms, but also continuous references – as to the temperaments, to melancholy and mania – to the classic conceptions of Greek and Latin medicine. There is a long duration through the centuries. When today we talk about temperaments, melancholy and mania, echoes still remain of the supernatural interpretations, of the theological conceptions of the capital vices, of the influence of alchemy and of esotericism. The knowledge of the variegated heritage of classical tradition, rich of suggestions, which have enriched the theories of temperaments, can help our understanding of the successes but also of the cultural obstacles. Instead, it’s lost the concept of an ordering entity, temperantia (temperance), in a pedagogical perspective, in the reflection that goes from Aristotle to saint Thomas, with also a role of discipline and modulation, not only of temperament inhibition. The reading of the classical texts, full of esoteric references, of theories that sometimes are more kindred to philosophy than clinic, of mechanistic simplifications, can help to understand the bases of conception that are still now deep-rooted in the popular culture (suffice it to think at the spread of the popular astrologic credence and of the relating belief about the influence of the stars on inner experience and behaviour) and that are looked over with irony and scepticism in the scientific contexts.