The possible links between personality psychology and psychopathology
are examined with the goal of understanding the constraints that set b
oundaries to the possible contributions of one to the other The recipr
ocal nature of these contributions is described. The historical survey
looks at the early concepts of the humors and temperament, at the con
cept of a general vulnerability to psychosis and deviance-represented
by the 19th-century concept of degeneracy-and at later typologies aris
ing from the work of Eysenck, Freud, Kretschmer, Pavlov, and Sheldon.
The impact of current developments in neuropsychology and in cognitive
psychology is discussed.