Philosophical anthropology and psychiatry: typus melancholicus as a human disposition.

Full Abstract

Key ideas of philosophical anthropology furnish the framework for a description of the personality type, typus melancholicus. These key ideas are:
(1) all living beings are related to and interact with their environments, (2) all living beings must maintain their identities in distinction from their environments, (3) the biological constitution of human beings leaves them instinct-deficient, (4) the human-world relationship must therefore be partially determined by cultural shaping, and (5) social roles and norms determine the consciousness and behavior of human beings. "Dispositional vectors" are basic tendencies within human beings that move them toward particular forms of world-relatedness. These dispositional vectors are:
over-identification with social norms (hypernomia), struggle with social norms (agonomia), under-identification with social norms (hyponomia), and over-identification with personal norms (idionomia). When the dispositional vector of hypernomia moves in a pathological direction, it becomes the personality type, typus melancholicus. The two fundamental features of typus melancholicus are hypernomia and intolerance of ambiguity.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Schwartz, Michael Alan (MA); Wiggins, Osborne P (OP);

Affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Case Western Reserve University, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Review

Journal: Seishin shinkeigaku zasshi = Psychiatria et neurologia Japonica (Seishin Shinkeigaku Zasshi), published in Japan. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-; vol 105 (issue 5) : pp 522-32

Dates: Created 2003/07/23; Completed 2003/10/02; Revised 2005/11/16;

PMID: 12875218, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.