For almost a century now, since Freud described the basic motivations
and Pavlov the basic mechanisms of human behavior, we have had a
reasonable concept of the forces that drive us. Only recently have we
gained any real insight into how the brain really works to produce such
behavior. The new developments in cognitive psychology and neuroscience
have taught us things about the function of the brain that would have
been inconceivable even ten years ago. Yet, there still remains a
tremendous gap between the two studies-human behavior and brain
function-a gap which often seems irrec- oncilable in view of the basic
differences in the methodologies and approaches of the two fields.
Students of behavior are frequently disinterested in the underlying neu-
rophysiology while neurophysiologists tend to consider the concepts of
psychiatrists and clinical psychologists too vague and theoretical to be
applicable to their own more limited schemata. Several valiant attempts
have been made by experimentalists to develop a theoretical context in
which behavior is described, not separately from brain function but
rather as its direct outgrowth. This present work is still another
attempt to develop a theoretical system which, given the limitations of
our present knowledge, as completely as possible, the underlying brain
mechanisms that influ- will describe ence and determine human behavior.
The main emphasis of this work, however, will be not on normal behavior
but rather on more neurotic manifestations.