Neuropsycholo~u~, Vol.

23,
Printed in Great Britain.

No. 6, pp. X13-814,

1985.

0028-3932/E $3.00+0.00 XT; 1985 Pergamon Press Ltd.

NOTE
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE TERM NEUROPSYCHOLOGY
DARRYL BRUCE Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, U.S.A.

(Acwpml Abstract-The Osler in 1913. term neuropsychology appears

11 April 1985) to have been first used formally by Sir William

IN THEIR introductory

neuropsychology

textbook,

KOLB and WHISHAW have stated

that

The term neuropsychology was apparently first alluded to by D. 0. Hebb, in a subtitle to his 1949 book The Organization of Behavior: A Neuropsychological Theory The term was given wide publicity when it appeared in 1960, in the title of a collection of K. S. Lashleys writings--The Neuropsychology of Lashley [3, p. 1111, Kolb and Whishaws second claim is probably correct; the term neuropsychology gained currency when it appeared in the title of Lashleys collected articles. But their first suggestion is wide of the mark by about 35 years. In this note, I review some of the past history of the word neuropsychology. The first occurrence of the term in Psychological Abstracts is in reference to a 1948 book chapter by LINDSLEY[6] entitled Studying Neuropsychology and Bodily Functions. Lindsley defines the term but gives no indication of its source. According to COBB et al. 123, however, Lashley is responsible for it. A review of Lashleys career and articles reveals that he adopted the word in the mid 1930s. In 1937, two years after coming to Harvard, he was appointed Research Professor of Neuropsychology; and he first used neuropsychology formally in an address to the Boston Society of Psychiatry and Neurology on March 19, 1936 [S]. We can be confident that this marks the beginning of Lashleys use of the term, for in earlier articles where it would have fitted perfectly, he failed to employ it. The best example of this is his 1933 paper [4] entitled Integrative Functions of the Cerebral Cortex, which was intended to formulate some of the significant problems on the border line between psychology and neurology . [4, p. 21. On the other hand, one can doubt that neuropsychology is Lashleys invention because of the way it appears in his 1936 address: he mentioned the term only in passing (p. 386) and as though it already had some general acceptance with his audience. If Lashley felt that way, it was justified. In 1937, Adolf Meyer, director of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, noted that Sir William Osler had spoken of neuropsychology in his remarks at the opening of the Clinic 24 years earlier and that the term had reappeared in various places since that time [7]. Although 1 have been unable to find any such reappearances, I have been able to verify Oslers priority. In an address on April 16, 1913, entitled Specialism in the General Hospital, OSLER hoped that as one benefit of the Phipps Clinic, time may be found for general instruction of the senior class in the elements of neuro-psychology . 18,p. 1701. There are a couple of interesting sidelights to this story. First, neuropsychology seems to have rubbed Meyer the wrong way. Consider what he said 24 years later in recalling Oslers remarks: Dr. Osler, in his address at our opening, thought that the Clinic was to be a research station for mental disorders and perhaps an opportunity for fourth year students to get a little glimpse into what he called rzeuropsychology. .: that was the label for what he deigned to accept in his conception of medical training [7, p. 2261. What rankled Meyer about Oslers use of neuropsychology, I suspect, was the implication that all mental illness is disease of the central nervous system, a view that Meyer stoutly opposed. The second matter concerns Lashleys introduction to the term. It is quite possible that he heard Oslers speech. As a graduate and postdoctoral student at Hopkins from 1911 to 1917, Lashley had developed an interest in psychopathology and psychiatry and had taken a minor with Meyer in these subjects. Moreover, he appears to have been in residence at Hopkins when Oslergave his address. So there is reason to believe that he may have been present at the ceremonies inaugurating the Phipps Clinic. But if he was, Oslers mention of neuropsychology evidently 813

814

NOTE

made no impression on him. This should not be surprising, however; it was not until 1916 that Lashley began his neuropsychological research. If not from Osler then, where did Lashley get the term? Perhaps in discussions with Meyer, despite the latters apparent dislike of the word. It is known that the two men remained in touch after Lashleys departure from Hopkins, mainly during annual meetings of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Councils Committee for Research on Problems of Sex [l]. But regardless of how Lashley came to the term, his publications are rightly credited for its wider acceptance. Nevertheless, the word itself appears to have been coined by Sir William Osler. Acknowledgments-I am grateful to the following individuals for their helpful comments on the topic of this essay: Frank Beach, Mark Berkley, Robert Doty, Donald Hebb, and Donald Lindsley. Professor Hebb pointed out to me Lashleys first formal use of neuropsychology. Some of the material for this note was provided by The Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives of The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, The Ferdinand Hamburger, Jr. Archives of The Johns Hopkins University, and the American Philosophical Library. I thank the staffs of these institutions for their assistance. Financial support was provided by grants from the History of Psychology Foundation, the Southern Regional Education Board, and the Florida State University Foundation.

REFERENCES
1. BEACH, F. Karl Spencer Lashley: June 7, 1890-August 7, 1958. Biogr. Mem. na/n. Acad. Sci. 35, 162-204, 1961. 2. COBB, S.. HISAW, F. L., STEVENS.S. S. and BORING, E. G. Karl Spencer Lashley. Ham. CInir. Gaz. 21 February. 115--l 16, 1959. 3. KOLB, B. and WHISHAW, I. Q. Fur~damrn~als ofHuman Neuropsycholog~. Freeman, San Francisco, 1980. 4. LASHLEY, K. S. Integrative functions of the cerebral cortex. Phqsiol. Rw. 13, l-42, 1933. 5. LASHLEY, K. S. Functional determinants of cerebral localization. A&IS Neural. Psychiat. 38, 371L387, 1937. 6. LINDSLEY. D. B. Studying neuropsychology and bodily functions. In Methods qfPsyc/~oloq~~,T. G. ANDREWS (Editor). Wiley, New York, 1948. 7. MEYER, A. Twenty-fourth anniversary of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic. In The Collected Papers ofAdorf Meyer, Vol. II, E. E. WINTERS (Editor). Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1951. 8. OSLER, W. Specialism in the general hospital. Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp. 24, 167- 171, 1913.