Surrounded By Idiots

Hippocrates (460 BCE-375 BCE) was a Greek thinker who had a profound influence on Western medical thought. Known as the “Father of Medicine,” Hippocrates shared his theories about both physical and mental ailments, as well as people’s general temperaments. Hippocrates posited that everyone has four humors: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Hippocrates believed that it is essential for human health that these humors are kept in balance. Hippocrates’s notion of “humors” was closely connected to his theories on personality, as he argued that an excess of a certain humor would create a particular temperament. For instance, if someone had an abundance of yellow bile, they would have a “fiery or temperamental” personality (Location 3336).

This is relevant to Erikson’s analysis of personality as Erikson claims that each of the four personality types he outlines in his work is a parallel to the personalities that Hippocrates identified thousands of years ago. For instance, Erikson claims that Hippocrates’s “Yellow Bile” or “Choleric” type is comparable to Erikson’s Red or “Dominant” personality type. By referencing Hippocrates’s four types and stressing their similarities with his own ideas, Erikson tries to ground his work in ancient insights. Erikson’s explanation of Hippocrates’s theories is a part of his effort to convey the DISC system as a continuation of a common sense, universal understanding of personality. Erikson does not address Hippocrates’s medical misunderstandings and how they may undermine his theories about personality.

William Moulton Marston (1893-1947) was an American psychologist, inventor, and author. Marston is famous for developing a systolic blood pressure test which another inventor, John Augustus Larson, further developed into the first polygraph, or lie-detector, test. Marston is also notable for creating the comic book character Wonder Woman and writing several volumes of the first Wonder Woman comics. A vocal feminist, Marston supported equal rights for women and sought to create a more empowered representation of women in his Wonder Woman character.

While many psychologists at the time focused on mental illnesses, Marston was interested in explaining the everyday behavior in healthy populations. In his 1928 book Emotions of Normal People, Marston introduced a system of personality categorization which he called the DISC system. This acronym stands for the four major traits which, according to Marston, determine people’s personalities. They are “Dominance,” “Inducement,” “Submission” and “Compliance.” Erikson credits Marston for developing these insights, which were later built on by Bill and David Bonnstetter, who use slightly different terms to describe the same personality types. Erikson views Marston as a “pioneer” of personality analysis, even though his work attracted little academic or critical notice at the time of publication. He calls his work “an endless source of valuable insights about behavior and human interactions” (Location 3365).

Bill Bonnstetter was an American businessman who co-founded the company TTI Success Insights with his son, David Bonnstetter. TTI Success Insights offers personality and behavior analysis based on William Marston’s DISC personality system. According to Erikson, by combining the DISC theory with software, the Bonnstetters have made Marston’s work more accessible to modern companies and individuals. Erikson calls TTI Success Insights’ software “revolutionary” (Location 25) and claims that “Bill Bonnstetter made invaluable achievements in creating definitive tools that help analyze the whole individual” (Location 3385). Erikson credits TTI Success Insights’ tools and training materials for helping him to understand human behavior; he has incorporated this approach into his work as a behavioral expert, and uses it as the foundation of his argument in Surrounded by Idiots.