Characterology

...above all, Jean Paul’s Levana both provide unsurpassed treasures of the greatest interest for the characterologist. Likewise, there were many useful characterological observations in the Aphorisms of Lichtenberg, and even the prominent epistemologist Immanuel Kant discussed the foundations of characterology in his Anthropology. The investigations of these students soon intersected with the physiognomical studies of Lavater, Camper, and Gall; the soil was thus well prepared for the biocentric psychology of the German Romantics. Towering above them all, is the recently re-discovered late Romantic physician Carl Gustav Carus, whose masterworks are the Psyche: On the Developmental History of the Soul and the Symbolism of the Human Anatomy. There are many worthwhile discoveries to be found as well in the works of Arthur Schopenhauer. From Schopenhauer the thread of tradition leads directly to the philosopher and pedagogue Julius Bahnsen, who brought out his two-volume treatise, the Contributions to Characterology, in 1867, in which the learned author first gives the illustrious child its proper name. After Bahnsen’s time, however, the thread of the characterological tradition was snapped.

Eventually, the pre-dominant natural-scientific, “experimental” psychology drove the science of character almost completely from the field. Works by French students, such as the Characters by Paulhan, and the Temperament and Character by Fouillee, remained without influence. One began to hear on all sides that a complete revolution in psychology was at hand.

Cosmogonic Reflections: Selected Aphorisms From Ludwig Klages