Tracking the Elusive Human, Vol. I: A Practical Guide to C.G. Jung's Psychological Types, W.H. Sheldon's Body and Temperament Types, and Their Integration by Arraj James & Arraj Tyra

Author:Arraj, James & Arraj, Tyra [Arraj, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Inner Growth Books and Videos, LLC
Published: 2011-12-06T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 4

William Sheldon's Body and Temperament Types

One day, after reading a short description of Sheldon's work, we found a copy of his Atlas of Men in the local library. This book contained over a thousand carefully posed photos of nearly nude men. The children crowded around Jim as he flipped through the pages, and they pointed and giggled. Even though we had learned to see people from the point of view of psychological types, it had never occurred to us to look at their bodies. Sheldon's work was to change that. We began to realize that Sheldon was one of those rare men, like Jung, who had pioneered a new way of tracking who we are. But he wasn't going to make any sense unless we made the effort to open our eyes and learn by practice how to see for ourselves. Let's start by looking at the basics of Sheldon's body and temperament types.

Who was William Sheldon?

William Sheldon (1898-1977) was an American psychologist who devoted his life to observing the variety of human bodies and temperaments. He taught and did research at a number of U.S. universities and is best known for his series of books on the human constitution. He was a keen observer of animals and birds as a child, and he turned this talent to good effect by becoming an avid people-watcher, and out of his observations he gradually elaborated his typology.

The Basic Components of Physique

For his study of the human physique, Dr. Sheldon started with 4,000 photographs of college-age men, which showed front, back and side views. By carefully examining these photos he discovered that there were three fundamental elements which, when combined together, made up all these physiques or somatotypes. With great effort and ingenuity he worked out ways to measure these three components and to express them numerically so that every human body could be described in terms of three numbers, and that two independent observers could arrive at very similar results in determining a person's body type. These basic elements he named endomorphy, mesomorphy and ectomorphy, for they seemed to derive from the three layers of the human embryo, the endoderm, the mesoderm and the ectoderm.

Endomorphy is centered on the abdomen, and the whole digestive system.

Mesomorphy is focused on the muscles and the circulatory system.

Ectomorphy is related to the brain and the nervous system.

We have all three elements in our bodily makeup, just as we all have digestive, circulatory and nervous systems. No one is simply an endomorph without having at the same time some mesomorphy and ectomorphy, but we have these components in varying degrees. Sheldon evaluated the degree a component was present on a scale ranging from one to seven, with one as the minimum and seven as the maximum.

The Extreme Endomorph – Roundness

The easiest way to get an idea of the variety of human physiques is by looking at the three extremes, even though in actual life the various combinations are much more common. According to Sheldon's system a 7-1-1 (seven-one-one) is the most extreme endomorph with minimal mesomorphy and ectomorphy.

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