Illusions

Temperament
by Giovanni Voltaggio

Temperament - an inborn predisposition for certain behavioral characteristics and tendencies.

Personality - the expression of internal drives, interests, emotions, fears, objective and subjective conditioning.

While certainly related, these two facets of human spirit are not the same. Temperament refers to the more permanent features of a person’s cognitions, attitudes, and resulting behavioral tendencies. For example, two babies in the same set of physical circumstances react quite differently: newborn baby “A” is very quiet, rarely cries, and is sweet and kind, while newborn baby “B” is appallingly noisy, crying all the time quite loudly and is most usually distressed and displeased. What can explain these differences?

Personality is derived from temperament, either being directly congruent with it or diametrically opposed to the guidings of it. If a person has a depressive temperament, is low in energy, lacking in motivation and lethargic, certain and specific mitigating techniques could be employed to attenuate the condition. Thus, personality can be used to regulate temperament, at least to some degree, yet certainly there are limits and restrictions regarding the amount of modification that can be effected. Temperamental dispositions are fundamentally inherent in the genetic design of the individual and it’s difficult or impossible to achieve success at alteration, even with psychotropics.

How can we distinguish between a naturally occurring temperamental trait and what Eric Berne has identified as merely “life-scripting?” The latter, of course, is explaining a recurring attitude or behavior that enables some kind of inessential emotional or physical gain as an immutable feature of the person when, in fact, it isn’t. Perhaps the best way to ascertain the distinction is to examine longitudinal features and mannerisms. Any person, at his core, has a particular and specific aura. In some cases this root nature has been preserved despite the conflicting myriad external influences and leadings imposed upon it. The result of following contrary external leadings can produce highly problematic outcomes as is manifested by mood-disorders, weight-gain, drug-usage, dependence on television, or other less than beneficial consequences.

Consequently, our first task is to uncover or discover what the natural temperament of the individual is. It goes without saying that this isn’t the easiest of tasks. Add to this confusing puzzle the sways and pulls of external forces that surround the individual and the challenge is augmented. Next, we seek to determine how the personality might be endeavoring to attentuate the shortcomings or deleterious components of the temperament and whether these techniques are effective. Most people do not anaylze or understand how to evaluate these factors and indeed, might find the concept of disassembling the elements of a person as nothing less than antiseptic and germicidal. Since the venture is complicated, unsure, and uncertain, it’s generally preferred to set it aside or write it off as outside of the sphere of what is achievable. An individual may be unable to determine whether their actions occur in and of their own impetus, or if they are nothing more than responses to some extrinsic stimulus that has a lesser significance.

On the other hand and to the contrary, simply having an awareness of temperament and the personality constructed on this foundation can bring immediate and beneficial insights. The main objective is for the person to get to the root of their true being, their instrinsic selfhood; to weed through the bramble of societally imposed and interferring coercions, to develop an individuality that is not dependent or unduly influenced by the zeitgeist. Only through this movement of independence, this thrust towards self-truth, will we procure a society of individuals that yields the variety of creative distinction on which the progress of the human species depends.