1e:T45c,A systematic method for clinical description and classification of both normal and abnormal personality variants is proposed based on a general biosocial theory of personality. Three dimensions of personality are defined in terms of the basic stimulus-response characteristics of novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence. The possible underlying genetic and neuroanatomical bases of observed variation in these dimensions are reviewed and considered in relation to adaptive responses to environmental challenge. The functional interaction of these dimensions leads to integrated patterns of differential response to novelty, punishment, and reward. The possible tridimensional combinations of extreme (high or low) variants on these basic stimulus-response characteristics correspond closely to traditional descriptions of personality disorders. This reconciles dimensional and categorical approaches to personality description. It also implies that the underlying structure of normal adaptive traits is the same as that of maladaptive personality traits, except for schizotypal and paranoid disorders.1f:T409,The work of Cannon,¹Bard,²Penfield,³Ranson⁴and others has greatly advanced knowledge of the functions of the hypothalamus. In the light of these researches the connections of the hypothalamus to the medial wall of the cerebral cortex gain a new significance. The following discussion presents some anatomic, clinical and experimental data dealing with the hypothalamus, the gyrus cinguli, the hippocampus and their interconnections. Taken as a whole, this ensemble of structures is proposed as representing theoretically the anatomic basis of the emotions. It is generally recognized that in the brain of lower vertebrates the medial wall of the cerebral hemisphere is connected anatomically and integrated physiologically with the hypothalamus and that the lateral wall is similarly related to the dorsal thalamus (Herrick⁵). These fundamental relations are not only retained but greatly elaborated in the mammalian brain by the further development of the hippocampal formation

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