Phlegmatic temperament from the psychiatric angle

Unlike the other five deadly sins of the Church, sloth is not attributed to an instinct or an impulse but to an anancastic form of reaction. A phlegmatic person is characterised by a lack of egoistic or altruistic instincts while feelings of nausea or fear are increased. Among phlegmatic persons those of clinical importance are epileptoid psychopaths, oblomovists and those exhibiting (forms of) phlegmatic temperament combined with obsessional or hysterical neurosis.