A brief overview of the history of personality disorders - a thread. 1/23

The history of personality disorders can be traced to 400BC, when Hippocrates described four personality patterns. These were choleric (irritable), melancholic (sad), sanguine (optimistic) and phlegmatic (apathetic). He believed these patterns were based on the four humors. 2/23

The four humors were black bile, yellow bile, blood and phlegm. Hippocrates believed that a person's personality pattern depending on the level of each of these humors. 3/23

Theories of disordered personality can also be traced back to ancient Chinese and Greek philosophy. Theophrastus (c 371 - c 287 BC) described 30 character types. For example, 'The Suspicious Man' has obvious links with today's paranoid personality disorder. 4/23

The category "Manie sans delire" (meaning mania without delusion) coined by Pinel in the 18th century appears to describe for the first time what is now known as a PD. He described a set of patients who he thought to behave irrationally despite being in touch with reality. 5/23