Type Approach to Personality: Krestchmer

Psychology

1. Krestchmer’s Typology : Type Approaches of Personality

2. Ernst Krestchmer (1888-1964) German psychiatrist Student of medicine, philosophy and theology Körperbau und Charakter (1921; Physique and Character) Studied human constitution and established a typology Developed a differential diagnosis between schizophrenia and manic depression 2

3. Theory of personality According to Krestchmer , a person’s physical constitution or morphology is associated with certain personality traits and psychopathology in extreme forms. The theory states that certain mental disorders were more common among people of specific physical types. Based on his observation of his patients. 4 types of body. Kretschmer’s ideas to some extent entered into popular culture and generated further psychological research. 3

4. Pyknic type Round robust built Stocky body with short wide neck Usually short body Extrovert Cycloid personality MDP 4

5. Asthenic type Thin and tall Fragile looking Introvert Schizoid personality Schizophrenia 5

6. Athletic type Muscular built Not too tall, not too short Ambivert MDP Epilepsy 6

7. Dysplastic type Unproportioned body Mix of other three types - personality Often due to hormonal imbalance 7

8. 8

9. Criticism Solely based on Krestchmer’s patients. His thinner Schizophrenic patients were younger than his pyknic manic depressive patients. Therefore, the differences in the body type could be explained by the differences in their ages. The existence of personality types remains extremely controversial. 9

10. References https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ernst-Kretschmer https://www.britannica.com/topic/Physique-and-Character https://psychology.fandom.com/wiki/Ernst_Kretschmer https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264789751_Fundamentals_of_Personality_Type_1_What_is_Personality_Type 10

11. Thank You