Somatotypes

1925

Ernst Kretschmer (1888–1964), William H. Sheldon (1898–1977)

The belief that body type, or somatotype, is linked to character or personality and life outcomes is ancient. The doshas of Ayurvedic medicine, dating from at least five thousand years ago, represent one version of this belief, but theories and practices based on the belief diminished in Western societies with the ascent of modern science. However, in the nineteenth century, Cesare Lombroso revived the idea in application to criminal types, and by the early years of the twentieth century, some physicians and psychologists developed new variants of the theory and sought to apply it in new ways.

After the defeat of Germany in World War I, many of that nation’s elite blamed technology and mechanistic science for Germany’s problems and sought holistic or organismic alternatives in medicine and psychology. Psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer developed a somatotype approach to mental and physical health that linked inherited personality types (e.g., schizothymic and cyclothymic) with three body types: stocky, thin, and athletic. His book describing the theory was published in English as Physique and Character (1925).

In the United States, physician George Draper at New York’s Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital used a constitutional, body-type approach in his research on the role of psychological factors in health and disease. Draper’s model included four panels of personality—morphology, physiology, psychology, and immunity—that together “determine the individual’s reaction, successful or unsuccessful, to the stress of environment.”

William H. Sheldon, with degrees in both medicine and psychology, developed what is probably the best-known theory relating body type and personality. He proposed three main body types, each with unique personality characteristics. The endomorph is stocky, with an extroverted personality; the mesomorph is also an extrovert, but with an athletic, muscular build; and the ectomorph is thin, often tall, introverted, inhibited, and artistic. Although somatotype theories have fallen out of favor among scientists, there still remain expressions of this belief in popular culture, such as the stereotype of the jolly fat person.

SEE ALSO Palmistry (c. 5000 BCE), Physiognomy (1775)

This December 1794 caricature by James Gillray satirizes the incipient neo-Classical trend in women’s clothing styles toward “short-bodied” or high-wasted gowns, showing women with two very different somatotypes wearing the same fashion.