Constitution type

In medicine, constitutional type ( body type ) is understood to mean the constitution of the individual with regard to body structure, performance and mental behavior.

From today's perspective, the constitutional typologies are scientifically outdated. Most of the assumptions about constitutional and psychological relationships have been refuted empirically.

The classifications were made arbitrarily, regardless of gender, age or culture differences. On the other hand, social and nutritional conditions could always have played a role in the development of constitutional types.

history

Greek four temperaments

In ancient Greece there were four temperaments . The humoral pathology on which they are based was the doctrine that was valid until the early modern era, but with the introduction of cellular pathology it is no longer a component of scientific medicine.

Sanguine : lively, agile, optimistic, light-blooded
Phlegmatic : cumbersome, sedate, comfortable, comfortable, slow
Choleric : passionate, quick-tempered, irascible, uncontrollable
Melancholic : moody, gloomy, pessimistic, indifferent

Kretschmer's constitutional types

The classification of the physical constitution types goes back to the psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer in the 1920s. With these physical and external characteristics described as follows, psychological characteristics or internal character and behavior types were connected, see his type theory . He divided into:

Pykniker : medium-sized, stocky build, tendency towards fat deposits, chest wider at the bottom than at the top, short neck and broad face. Temperament sedate, cozy, kind-hearted, sociable, cheerful, comfortable-satisfied, lively to heated or also quiet and soft.
Athlete : strong build, broad shoulders, broad chest at the top. Temperament generally cheerful, brisk and active or dynamic.
Asthenics / leptosomes : lean, delicate, narrow and flat-chested, with thin arms and legs, physically and mentally sensitive, complicated, erratic. Asthenics are people of pale, narrow-faced, "asthenic" ("weak") constitutional type. Relatively long, thin limbs , characterized by a long neck, a relatively small head and a narrow, flat chest . As leptosome or leptomorph described Kretschmer People with slim, schmalwüchsigem physique and narrow, leichtknochigen limbs. With this type of constitution, an epigastric angle of less than 80 degrees can be observed. So it is a " narrow chest ".
Dysplastic : Smaller body types, deviating from the three most common body types (described above).

literature

Klaus Holldack, Klaus Gahl: Auscultation and percussion. Inspection and palpation. Thieme, Stuttgart 1955; 10th, revised edition ibid 1986, ISBN 3-13-352410-0 , p. 55 f.

Individual evidence

↑ Helmut Wurm: Type of man and power in the early and early high Middle Ages (750 to 1000 AD). Preparatory work on the constitutional types of leading personalities and selected populations in the area of the German settlement area according to contemporary reports. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 11, 1993, pp. 235-260.

[1] Helmut Wurm: Type of man and power in the early and early high Middle Ages (750 to 1000 AD). Preparatory work on the constitutional types of leading personalities and selected populations in the area of the German settlement area according to contemporary reports. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 11, 1993, pp. 235-260.