The Psychiatric Roots of Neuropsychology: From Clérambault to Penfield, from Ajuriaguerra/Hécaen to Vygotsky/Luria . And Why This Legacy Has Been Hidden or Denied

Neuropsychology is commonly viewed today as a field situated between cognitive neuroscience and clinical psychology. However, its historical and conceptual foundations are deeply rooted in psychiatry. This article explores the psychiatric genealogy of neuropsychology, tracing its development from early clinical observations of automatism and delusions by Clérambault, through Penfield’s subjective neurosurgical explorations, to Hebb’s neural assemblies and the pioneering work of Ajuriaguerra, Hécaen, Luria, and Vygotsky. Although Donald Hebb’s 1949 book The Organization of Behavior included the phrase “a neuropsychological theory,” the term neuropsychology was used only adjectivally. The first formal use of the noun “neuropsychology” to name a distinct discipline appeared in Henri Hécaen’s 1972 book Introduction à la neuropsychologie. These figures, many of them trained psychiatrists or clinicians working directly with psychiatric populations, shaped the theoretical and practical contours of neuropsychology. The emergence of this discipline is shown to be inseparable from psychiatric thought and clinical encounter