People with phlegmatic personality are unassuming, agreeable and intuitive. They possess the ability of “web thinking”, i.e. to see the relationship between many bits of data they collect.
Phlegmatic Skills
They have a wonderful skill to gather the facts, classify them into categories, and then see the relationship between seemingly contradicting elements. Basically, it is the ability to read between the lines. These men and women don’t do very well at memorizing separate unrelated facts, they grow bored and annoyed and to be excited by the process, they need to be able to generalize.
It’s all about the estrogen!
Phlegmatic personality traits are linked to estrogen, which is present in both men and women. However, phlegmatic people are predominantly females. The two hemispheres of the brain are connected by millions of nerve fibers, and estrogen builds more nerve connections between the remote areas within each hemisphere, in turn, this assists the ability of “seeing a bigger picture” or “web thinking”.
– These people are imaginative – they like to think abstractly about the things that only can be imagined. For example, they will try to read your body language and tell you what you were thinking from your half smile.
– The Phlegmatic person will want to know other people’s deepest feelings and strive to build intimate attachments with about everyone in their lives. They are interested in cooperation and interpersonal harmony, and this is why they preserve their family ties and friendships. When there is a conflict, they seek to agree, to satisfy the needs of everyone involved.
– These men and women are very empathetic and compassionate. They try to understand what the other person is thinking and feeling, then to respond accordingly, which allows them to connect with that person. Moreover, people with phlegmatic personality are agreeable.
– They could be described as cooperative, considerate, charitable, sympathetic, trusting and warm. They like to express their feelings, sometimes dramatizing their experience (another evidence of high estrogen activity).
– Phlegmatic men and women seek to contribute to society at large. They strive to fight cancer, donate to orphanages and help the poor; even more than that, they also strive to a greater self-knowledge which they see as a must.
On the negative side, people with a phlegmatic personality can be indecisive, unable to focus on important details while ruminating on the bigger picture. Their talkativeness can be annoying and because they seek for a connection, they may appear needy, constantly demanding reassurance.
While trying to understand you, they also may assume that you see and feel the world the same way they do. They might take criticisms as an insult and pout for days, weeks and months. Finally, they are very prone to depression.
Find out all about how Phlegmatic people behave in love and relationships here.
Go to the main Temperaments page
The Phlegmatic personality type is very close or similar to the INFP personality type.