Landmark Clinical, Scientific, and Professional Contributions
The contemporary identity of neuropsychology was in many ways shaped by the work of Henry Hécaen. While his career was still in its nascent stages, Hécaen moved away from his initial interest in psychiatry, and became increasingly involved in the study of neurology, under the mentorship of Jean Lhermitte. Although the term was not then widely used, Hécaen had been described as a neuropsychologist “from that moment until the end” (Lhermitte et al. 1985). Although the more prestigious routes of the Salpêtrière and Bicêtre were closed to him, due to the rigidity of the French medical establishment (Boller 2006), Hécaen managed to harness the opportunities available to him to become one of the most influential and essential individuals in the establishment of neuropsychology as a distinct discipline.
The end of the Second World War and the liberation of France allowed Hécaen to concentrate on the practice of neurology and...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References and Readings
Benton, A. (1983). Henry Hécaen (1912–1983). Cortex, 19(4), 425–426.
Benton, A. (1991). The Hécaen-Zangwill legacy: Hemispheric dominance examined. Neuropsychology Review, 2(4), 267–280.
Benton, A. (1994). Four neuropsychologists. Neuropsychology Review, 4(1), 31–44.
Boller, F. (2006). Modern neuropsychology in France: Henry Hécaen (1912–1983) and the Sainte-Anne hospital. Cortex, 42(8), 1061–1063.
de Ajuriaguerra, J., & Hécaen, H. (1949). Le cortex cerebral. Paris: Masson.
Galtier, A. (1984). Publications of Henry Hécaen. Neuropsychologia, 22(6), 647–659.
Hécaen, H., Penfield, W., Bertrand, C., & Malmo, R. (1956). The syndrome of apractognosia due to lesions of the minor cerebral hemisphere. AMA Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry, 75(4), 400–434.
Lhermitte, F., Lecours, A., Poncet, M., Marcie, P., & Whitaker, H. (1985). Memoriam: Henry Hécaen (1912–1983). Brain and Cognition, 4(2), 133–139.
Tzavaras, A. (1986). The evolution of Henry Hécaen’s thoughts: Neuropsychiatry and the theoretical substratum of a neuropsychologist. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 2(1), 201–207.
Tzavaras, A., & Albert, M. (2002). Henry Hécaen: Evolution of his thought. In A. Stringer, E. Cooley, & A. Christensen (Eds.), Pathways to prominence in neuropsychology: Reflections of twentieth-century pioneers (pp. 41–47). New York: Psychology Press.
Zangwill, O. (1984). Henry Hécaen and the origins of the International Neuropsychological Symposium. Neuropsychologia, 22(6), 813–815.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Hudepohl, A., Stringer, A.Y. (2018). Hécaen, Henry (1912–1983). In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_625
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_625
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57110-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences