A few days ago I went to my appointment with my psychiatrist. I have to say that deciding to go to one was the best decision for me. I’m a depressive person and I need help, I’m not embarrassed to tell it.
Anyway he said to me that many writers had melancholic temperaments, and that for people with this character usually was easier to write.
So I searched for melancholic personality and this is what I found:
Personality Strengths of the Melancholy
Deep and thoughtful
Analytical
Serious and purposeful
Genius prone
Talented and creative
Artistic or musical
Appreciative of beauty
Sensitive to others
Self-sacrificing
Conscientious
Idealistic
As a parent, sets high standards and wants everything done right.
As a homemaker, keeps everything in order.
As an employee, schedule oriented and hard working.
A list maker and keeper.
Analytical
Serious and purposeful
Genius prone
Talented and creative
Artistic or musical
Appreciative of beauty
Sensitive to others
Self-sacrificing
Conscientious
Idealistic
As a parent, sets high standards and wants everything done right.
As a homemaker, keeps everything in order.
As an employee, schedule oriented and hard working.
A list maker and keeper.
Personality Weaknesses of the Melancholy
Easily offended
Can get too caught up in details
Doesn't do well with change.
Struggles with insecurity
Tends towards depression
Can get too caught up in details
Doesn't do well with change.
Struggles with insecurity
Tends towards depression
After reading this I thought that you can have this but also have some characteristic of other temperaments so I searched for the four basic temperaments in Wikipedia and are these:
Sanguine
The Sanguine temperament personality is fairly extroverted. People of a sanguine temperament tend to enjoy social gatherings, making new friends and tend to be quite loud. They are usually quite creative and often daydream. However, some alone time is crucial for those of this temperament. Sanguine can also mean very sensitive, compassionate and thoughtful. Sanguine personalities generally struggle with following tasks all the way through, are chronically late, and tend to be forgetful and sometimes a little sarcastic. Often, when pursuing a new hobby, interest is lost quickly when it ceases to be engaging or fun. They are very much people persons. They are talkative and not shy. Sanguine can be sometimes emotional.
Choleric
A person who is choleric is a do-er. They have a lot of ambition, energy, and passion, and try to instill it in others. They can dominate people of other temperaments, especially phlegmatic types. Many great charismatic military and political figures were choleric. They like to be leaders and in charge of everything.
Melancholic
A person who is a thoughtful ponderer has a melancholic disposition. Often very considerate and get rather worried when they could not be on time for events, melancholics can be highly creative in activities such as poetry and art - and can become occupied with the tragedy and cruelty in the world. A melancholic is also often a perfectionist. They are often self-reliant and independent; one negative part of being a melancholic is sometimes they can get so involved in what they are doing they forget to think of others.
Phlegmatic
Phlegmatics tend to be self-content and kind. They can be very accepting and affectionate. They may be very receptive and shy and often prefer stability to uncertainty and change. They are very consistent, relaxed, calm, rational, curious, and observant, making them good administrators. They can also be very passive-aggressive.
LaHaye believes there are twelve mixtures of the four temperaments, representing people who have the traits of two temperaments, called Mel-Chlor, Chlor-San, San-Phleg, Phleg-Mel, Mel-San, Chlor-Phleg; and the reverse of these: Chlor-Mel, San-Chlor, Phleg-San, Mel-Phleg, San-Mel, and Phleg-Chlor. The order of temperaments in these pairs was based on which temperament was the "dominant" one (this is usually expressed by percentages). A person can also be a blend of three temperaments. Other four-type models, such as Social Styles, also have similar blends q.v., and in the five temperament theory, the blends are defined along the three areas of "Inclusion", "Control", and "Affection". The blends expand the number of types to sixteen (twelve blends of two types, plus the four pure types) or more (for blends of three).Ok I’m not a psychologist or a psychiatrist but I see that maybe us that are writers have in our personality some traits from melancholy. At last I have a lot of them.
Also he said to me that people who had a painful childhood or painful moments in life were better writers according to many studies and that even when writers deny it in many of our stories you could find many things about us. Well, I can understand this; maybe you can create better a tortured character when you had lived hard situations yourself. If you had lived a perfect life it will be hard to relate, but not impossible.
I was shocked about all this information and I’m for sure checking my story to see if there’s something about me.
I think I’m a melancholic-phlegmatic with a little of choleric.
What do you think? You think writers have melancholic traits? Do you think that people who had lived painful moments or difficult moments become better writers?
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