Book Description

The book comprises biographical notes, of about 1000 words each, with a portrait photo, of 90 influential figures of the famous prewar Viennese school of neuropsychiatry, appearing together for the first time in a single volume. The entries focus on the academic lives and scientific contributions of pioneers in the neurological sciences viewed from a modern perspective. These updated profiles are based on substantial new research.

The book includes a wide range of people, some famous Nobel laureates, and others less well known, from the era when Vienna was the epicenter of brain research. Despite the tragic circumstances of two World Wars, these pioneers remained resilient, willing to help others with an admirable dignity against adversity that leaves an indelible lesson to the later generations. Some fell victim of the Holocaust. Others overcame the constraints of National Socialism and ultimately settled overseas to nurture their ambitions and pursue their intellectual goals as physicians, researchers, and teachers.

The monograph is a useful source for scholars interested in the evolution of ideas in basic neuroscience, clinical neurology, and neuropsychiatry, and the investigators who effected them.