How can a modern writer use an ancient theory about the four bodily humors to enrich their characters?

Back by popular demand, writer Ken LaZebnik takes us on a tour of the theory of humorism, which influenced medical thinking – and character analysis – for over 2,000 years. From its beginnings with Hippocrates, to Shakespeare using it to inform his characters, to its intersection with Jung and modern storytelling, the four humors remain a rarely acknowledged part of our heritage.

Screenwriters can deepen modern characters by delving into the four primal types of human beings organized around the elements of earth, water, air and fire: melancholic, phlegmatic, choleric and sanguine. Join us for a virtual examination of blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile – and how we can still use the four humors today.

About the instructor

Ken LaZebnik writes for television, film and theatre. He shares story credit with Garrison Keillor on Robert Altman’s last film, A Prairie Home Companion. LaZebnik wrote the Lionsgate film Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage, starring Peter O’Toole, and has written for television for twenty-five years, including eight years as a writer/producer for Touched by an Angel. He has written for Army Wives, Providence, Star Trek: Enterprise and When Calls the Heart on the Hallmark Channel. LaZebnik is also the Director of the M.F.A. in Writing and Producing for Television at LIU Brooklyn.

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