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Physiognomy Navigator
Physiognomy as Practiced in Europe
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| Choleric | Melancolic |
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| Phlegmatic | Sanguine |
| From: John Caspar Lavater. Essays on Physiognomy. London: Whittingham, 1804. | |
The practice of physiognomy in Western culture tends to be eclectic and less systematic, compared to that of Eastern cultures. Johann Kaspar Lavater was a Swiss cleric and philosopher who had an important role in elaborating and promoting physiognomy in Europe. His famous book on the subject appeared in the late 1700s and included a chapter by the German poet Goethe. It became a popular and influential work despite the lack of supporting evidence for its claims.
The illustrations above show Lavater's basic classification of people into personality types based on their faces. A choleric person has a "hot" temperament, is irritable and easily roused to anger. A melancolic person is pensive and tends to feel sad. A phlegmatic person is not easily aroused to excitement and lacks emotion expression. A sanguine person is confident and optimistic. These descriptions of personality have their origins in the writings of the ancient Greek philosophers and were thought to be related to the type of bile, blood, or atoms that coursed through the body. Not only are these physiological notions bogus, but personality psychologists today reject these classifications as lacking validity. Some of the adjectives remain useful in describing particular persons, however.
In addition to the general appearance of the face, as illustrated here, Lavater also provided associations between specific features of the face and personal characteristics.
The faces of Lavater in the illustrations above do differ in ways that can be described. For example, the choleric and sanguine types have convex facial profiles, but the melancolic and phlegmatic have concave profiles. These differences are known technically as dolichocephalic and brachycephalic, respectively. These facial shapes have been found to be correlated with some personal characteristics (see the Disease Facet and the Attractiveness Facet). Their noses and other features also differ, but there is no evidence of a connection of this specific difference with other personal characters though many have claimed such associations (see the Visage applet for interpretations of nose shapes).
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| From: Joseph Simms. Physiognomy Illustrated. New York: Murray Hill, 1889. |
Physiognomists had some rather bizarre concepts about faces and personalities, and often tried to characterize the extremes in facial features, as the illustration from Simms above suggests. Can you recognize who these historical figures are? [Answer]
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| Aquasorbitiveness |
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| Physiodelectatiousness |
On the left are examples from Simms of the kind of attributes that many of the physiognomists tried to characterize in the face. Aquasorbitiveness is "a relish for water, an appreciation and love of water drinking, water scenery, bathing, etc." which shows in the face as "A rounding or puffy fullness of the cheeks, from one-half to three-fourhts of an inch outwards, backwards, and slightly upwards from the mouth is that part of the face where the love of liquid first manifests itself."
Physiodelectatiousness is "the disposition and inclination for sensual delights" which shows in the face as "a thick under eyelid, which crowds up upon the eyes, except in those given to indulge in intoxicating beverages, whose lower eyelids in age will fall away from the eyeball, as if tired by their situation. or weary in assisting the eyes to such low desires...."
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