The Neurological Study Unit: “A Combined Attack on a Single Problem from Many Angles”

AHP readers may be interested in a forthcoming article in the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien d’histoire de la médecine: “The Neurological Study Unit: “A Combined Attack on a Single Problem from Many Angles”,” by Elan D. Louis. English and French language abstracts:

In the 1920s, neurology was a fledgling discipline. Various attempts were made to establish programs relating to neurological care and research. One such initiative was the Neurological Study Unit (NSU) at the Yale School of Medicine. My aim is to chronicle the early years of the NSU (1924–40): the motivations for establishing the unit, its structure, its challenges, and its evolution. I have studied all documents related to the NSU at Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University Library. The NSU was heralded as a “combined attack on a single problem from many angles.” It was slow to develop, however, and had a number of missing elements. While some of this may have been due to a lack of funds and the absence of a dedicated neurologist, it was also the result of a failure to conceptualize a neurological unit, the slow evolution-into-existence of a nascent and fledgling medical discipline, growing pains and frictions within the leadership, a university-based rather than a hospital-based model of operation, and turf wars between neurology and allied disciplines.

Au cours des années 1920, la neurologie étant encore une jeune discipline, diverses tentatives ont été faites afin d’établir des programmes relatifs aux soins en neurologie et à la recherche. L’une de ces initiatives a été le Neurological Study Unit (NSU) de la Yale School of Medicine. Mon objectif est de retracer les premières années de la NSU (1924-1940) et de comprendre les motivations à l’origine de sa création en examinant sa structure, ses défis et son évolution. Pour y parvenir, j’ai étudié tous les documents relatifs à la NSU au Manuscripts & Archives de la Yale University Library. Si la NSU fut présentée comme une « attaque sous plusieurs angles d’un seul problème », elle s’est cependant développée lentement. Cette évolution difficile s’explique sans doute par le manque de financement et l’absence d’un neurologue attitré, mais également par d’autres facteurs comme la difficulté à penser l’unité neurologique, la lente émergence d’une jeune discipline médicale, les frictions au sein de la direction, un modèle d’opération axé sur l’université plutôt que l’hôpital, ainsi que les guerres de territoires entre la neurologie et les disciplines connexes.

About Jacy Young

Jacy Young is a professor at Quest University Canada. A critical feminist psychologist and historian of psychology, she is committed to critical pedagogy and public engagement with feminist psychology and the history of the discipline.