Historical Interfaces Between American Neurology and Psychiatry

Abstract

Medical specialization evolved out of the burgeoning scientific advances of the 19th century (1). This movement was an international one, but most pronounced in France, where the celebrated Faculté de Médecine in Paris developed numerous professorial chairs to honor and prioritize advances in selective medical fields (2). Other countries echoed this movement, adapting the concept of specialization to their own medical cultures and working with the experts available in their universities. Some specialties related primarily to the emerging laboratory disciplines, such as microbiology, pathology, pharmacology, and physiology. In most instances, however, clinical specialties were based anatomically, dividing the human body by organ systems and leading to divisions like pulmonology, dermatology, cardiology, and others. Because each organ system was distinct, these specialties were largely autonomous from one another, integrating with each other only through their original base of internal medicine.