The DISC©® Method did not invent anything. It rather rediscovered what the Greek philosophers had discovered in the 5thcentury BC, crossing the four elements of Empedocles as well as the four moods of Hippocrates and the four temperaments corresponding to them, with the four fundamental qualities of Aristotle.
These are the eight typologies that are listed in the AEC DISC©® Wheel of Colors, which have been changed from the original DISC©® colors that were not these.
Originally it was a hypothesis of some Greek philosophers including Empedocles (490-430 BC) in the fifth century BC, that all materials constituting the world would be composed of four elements: Fire, Air, Water and Earth.
The Hippocratic School (460-370 BC) founded by Hippocrates, father of medicine, was influenced by this theory of the four elements, determining four moods:
- Yellow bile: coming from the liver (bilious character, ie. anxious)
- Blood: also produced by the liver, it is received by the heart (blood character or jovial, warm)
- Pituitis or phlegm or lymph: attached to the brain (lymphatic character)
- Black bile: coming from the spleen (melancholic character).
These moods correspond to the four elements, themselves characterized by their own qualities. Depending on their predominance, they will determine the four basic temperaments:
- Bilious or Angry temperament(yellow bile) is associated with Fire
- Sanguine temperament (blood) is associated with Air
- Phlegmatic temperament(lymph) is associated with Water
- Melancholic temperament(black bile) is associated with Earth
The most decisive contribution to the theory of the four elements (Fire, Air, Water and Earth) was Aristotle’s (384-322 BC). He added the notion of four elemental qualities: Hot, Cold, Dry and Wet.
The symbolic interpretation of the four elements is based on their decomposition into four elemental qualities, along two axes of analysis: temperature (hot and cold) on the one hand and humidity (dry and wet) on the one hand.
- Warm is generally a principle of energy, activity, extraversion and impulse
- On the contrary, Coldis a principle of passivity, resistance, internalization and introversion.
- Dryis a process of analysis, separation, individualization, contraction and withdrawal into detail or self. It takes place in a rigid and brittle atmosphere, going to extremes.
- On the contrary, Wet is a process of synthesis, connection and collectivization, openness to the global and the collective. It is driven in an atmosphere of relaxation and flexibility.
Fire is dry and hot, Air is hot and wet (qualities of exhaled breath), Water is cold and wet and Earth inherits cold and dry qualities (the qualities of ash). Therefore:
- Bilious or Angry temperaments associated with Directive “Red”would correspond to Hot and Dry
- “Red-Yellow” Promoterswould correspond to Hot
- Sanguine temperamentsassociated with Expansive “Yellow”would correspond to Hot and Wet
- “Yellow-Green” Facilitatorswould correspond to Wet
- Phlegmatic temperamentsassociated with the Cooperative “Green”would correspond to Cold and Wet
- ”Green-Blue” Coordinatorswould correspond to Cold
- Melancholic temperamentsassociated with Normative “Blue”would correspond to Cold and Dry
- “Blue-Red” Organizerswould correspond toDry
