Some gnomes worth knowing

Clinical neuropsychology varies greatly in its level of development even in countries where it has reached a high degree of sophistication in some centres. Benton (1987) pointed to the continuation of vague terminology among many psychologists in this area, even some who consider they are practising neuropsychology. This vagueness is often accompanied by a primitive conceptualization of the organization of the brain for the purpose of subserving higher functions and "an uncritical interpretation of test findings" and "the drawing of unwarranted conclusions" from test results about the state of the brain. After a brief consideration of the network concept of cerebral functioning, some examples of errors and difficulties in test interpretation are given in the form of gnomes or aphorisms from prominent clinicians to demonstrate the need for improvement of the education of all psychologists who are likely to be faced with essentially neuropsychological problems.