The correlation between the types of human temperament and somatic diseases, including coronavirus disease

Abstract

The research deals with the psychological issues of optimizing the behavior of an individual and society in the situation of coronavirus pandemic. The aim of the research is to outline the psychological tools for overcoming personality distress due to the data on the correlation between the types of human temperament and the types of stress and somatic diseases, including coronavirus disease. The tasks of the research stemming from its aim are as follows: presenting an objective method of ascertaining the types of human temperament; finding out the correlation between the types of human temperament and the temperamental types of stress and somatic diseases, including coronavirus disease, due to the rich experience in psychotherapeutic activities of the authors; making supposition as for the most likely vulnerable high-risk group of the coronavirus disease in a pandemic process; outlining some important approaches of psychological counseling and psychotherapeutic work with the clients in coronavirus pandemic. The methodological foundations of the study are connected with scientific concepts, psychological, psychotherapeutic and medical ideas concerning the nature of stress/distress and the methods of overcoming their negative effects. The participants in the experimental work are about 4000 clients having taken part in authors' psychological counseling and psychotherapeutic activity. The used methods are the objective computerized method of ascertaining the types of human temperament as well as the methods of psychological counseling. It is shown that there are five types of stress which correspond to five types of human temperament. The fifth type is called an equilibrium type, since it is located between choleroids and sanguinoids, on the one hand, and melancholoids and phlegmatoids, on the other. Thus, the psychotherapeutic work with people to overcome stress should take into account their temperament. The experimental data enable to make a supposition about such preferred diseases and the symptoms stemming from the conditions of person's psychodynamic incongruence, as: a) possible cholecystitis, hepatitis in choleroids; b) myocardial infarction in sanguinoids (about half of their total number); c) lung diseases and the problems with kidneys in the representatives of the equilibrium type; d) angina pectoris and hypertension in melancholoids; e) probable gastrointestinal disorders and diseases, even stomach ulcers in phlegmatoids. The representatives of equilibrium type of temperament are characterized by pulmonary and renal diseases as preferred diseases. There are 4 % of such representatives in the entire population. In the light of statistical data on coronavirus disease in a pandemic, they can be considered a high-risk group. It is this group that can form the core of 10-15 % of the population who actually are open to the coronavirus threat.