Hippocrates (c. 460-377 B.C.) explains it all for you:
Air = blood = sanguine
Earth = black bile = melancholic
Fire = yellow bile = choleric
Water = phlegm = phlegmatic
The DSM and ISC whimper
Mere flickers of the vibrant, colorful
Hippocratic air, earth, fire, and water
That define the misery, the trouble
Afflicting human bellies, hearts, and minds.
Finally, it all boils down to balance.
Too airy, bloody, sanguine—tilted—blind
To the apathy moist phlegm imparts—prance
Withers. Anger, yellow bile induced, fires
Until earthy black bile melancholy
Buries joy, diffidence, rage, in mud mires
Of sorrow. Pathology of folly—
Unruled, those fluids—savage, muddied, mixed—
Kaleidoscopic tidal swirls inflict
That tumbling madness we may never fix—
Humor-pickled—grub for glib mentalists.
(12/15/09)