Interviewing Neuropsychological Rehabilitation

Interviewing Neuropsychological Rehabilitation: (Volume I: Beginnings) offers a reflective and dialogical exploration of the origins of neuropsychological rehabilitation through the voices of those who helped shape its early development. Compiled and edited by Dr. Christian Salas, this volume brings together a series of in-depth interviews that trace how the field emerged—not as a predefined discipline, but as a set of practices, ideas, and encounters that gradually took form across time and contexts.

Focusing on the formative years of neuropsychological rehabilitation, Beginnings examines the intellectual, clinical, and personal trajectories that contributed to its foundation. Through conversations with leading figures such as George Prigatano, Barbara Wilson, Anne-Lise Christensen, Lance Trexler, Masahiro Nochi, Mark Ylvisaker, Pamela Klonoff, Jill Winegardner, Tedd Judd, Jennie Ponsford and Elena Márquez, the volume highlights how the field was shaped by interdisciplinary influences, institutional developments, and the lived experiences of clinicians and patients alike. Rather than presenting a linear history, the book reveals a field constructed through dialogue, experimentation, and the ongoing negotiation between theory and practice.

Set against the backdrop of Chile—whose name means “the ends of the earth”—the book adopts a decolonial and cross-cultural perspective, situating these stories within a broader global context and foregrounding the relational and situated nature of knowledge production. In doing so, it portrays neuropsychological rehabilitation not as a finished body of knowledge, but as a discipline whose beginnings remain present in its current practices.

This volume will be of interest to clinicians, researchers, and students in clinical neuropsychology, rehabilitation, psychotherapy, and allied health fields seeking to understand how the discipline came into being and how its foundational ideas continue to shape contemporary practice.