Neurology and psychiatry

Abstract

The scientific study of the brain and its relationship to complex behaviors began with Gall in the early 19th century.6 The anatomic studies of aphasia by Broca in 1861 and Wernicke in 1874 persuaded a number of scientists that the brain was the seat of intellectual competence as well as the potential site of mental problems.6 During the last half of the 19th century through World War II, figures from the ranks of European academia who engaged in the study of higher order mental dysfunction included Meynert, Liepmann, Pick, Oppenheim, Charcot, Korsakoff, von Monakow, Babinski, Janet, Freud, Jackson, Bleuler, Kraepelin, Bonhoeffer, and Alzheimer. All were considered to be neuropsychiatrists, interested in both neurology and psychiatry. Many held dual academic posts in neurology and psychiatry.6 Neuropathology arose from efforts, primarily based in Germany, to correlate changes in brain structure with mental illness.6