Neuropsychology has its roots in clinical neurology. Reading case de-
scriptions by 19th century neurologists, such as Wernicke's
painstakingly detailed examinations of patients with the "aphasic
symptom-complex," makes it obvious that neuropsychology is not a new
discipline. Even the marriage with psychology is not new; the
neurologist Arnold Pick, for example, was fully conversant with the
developments in contemporary psychological as well as linguistic
research. However, the primary focus of 19th and early 20th century
psychology was on "general psychology," and only a small number of
psychologists ventured into what then was called "differential
psychology" (the psychology of individual dif- ferences) including a few
who became attached to neurological research and rehabilitation units
after World War I. It remained until World War II for psychologists to
establish a more solid working relationship with neurology. What
psychology had to offer to neurology was its experimental skill, the
development of a sophisticated methodology, and, for clinical work, the
development of psychometrics. On the whole, the marriage between the two
disciplines has been fruitful, leading to new insights, models, and
discoveries about brain-behavior relationships, documented in several
textbooks which appeared in rapid succession since the 1960s. In
clinical practice, neuropsychology has been inventive in some respects,
in others merely introducing psychometric rigor to already existing
neurological examinations. As described in greater detail in this book,
developmental neuropsy- chology is of even more recent origin.
