Starting anew: Henry Head's contribution to Aphasia studies

The British neurologist Henry Head (1861-1940) in 1926 published a work entitled Aphasia and Kindred Disorders, which has been described as one of the most significant contributions to the field. The paper discusses the background to the appearance to this work. It focuses on Head's claim to have made a startling new departure in the study of aphasia. He is shown to have been among the first workers in the field to have been aware of the bearing of contemporary developments in linguistics on the study of language disorders. Head also insisted on the need to study the condition of aphasic patients in a much more intensive and extensive way than had hitherto been attempted. To this end he developed an elaborate battery of tests designed to assess various aspects of symbolic performance. He was, however, only able to make full use of these techniques due to the fortuitous availability in the aftermath of the First World War of a class of patient able and willing to participate fully in these investigations. Despite Head's claims to have revolutionized aphasia studies, he felt constrained to try to localize the syndromes he had identified in a traditional fashion.